English Denominations by J. N. Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 24, 1879

English Denominations.

By J. N. Loughborough

As it becomes necessary for the master-builder, who has before him a building to construct, to carefully examine his material, so a minister of the gospel of Christ, who wishes to act his part in constructing the spiritual temple on the foundation, Christ, must have some knowledge of the sentiments, habits, and customs of those among whom he labors. With this object in view, I am seeking to learn the doctrines and practices of the different denominations in England.

Firmly believing in the near coming of our blessed Lord and Saviour, and having a desire to know how the doctrine is regarded here, and to know also the sentiments connected with it, I have ascertained the following facts:

Both in and out of the Established Church, the doctrine of the near coming of Christ is much more generally entertained than in America. There is but little prejudice against it, and the people are especially interested to hear and read concerning the subject. It is true that some of the sects look for the world’s conversion and temporal millennium before the return of Christ, but their numbers are less, proportionately, than in the United States.

Knowing that the late Edward Irving, whose influence contributed quite largely to the introduction into England of the subject of the literal coming and reign of Christ, I had some little interest to acquaint myself with his followers. Therefore on March 16 I went to a meeting of the Irvingites, in Bedford Place, Southampton. I would here state that this Mr. Irving is he who translated into English the Spanish work treating on the subject of the coming of Christ, and wrote extensively on the doctrine, creating a great stir in this kingdom from about the year 1830 to 1844. The book he obtained and translated was written by an anonymous author styling himself “Ben Ezra.” The meeting to which I referred was their usual Sunday communion service, and lasted from 10 A. M. until 12:30 P. M. To some little idea of the almost endless form and ceremony of the occasion, it would be safe to say, that not five minutes passed during the whole two and a half hours without some change in the service, either chanting, singing, praying, offering incense, etc., of which the service principally consisted.

Through the kindness of a friend I obtained the perusal of a set of their standard tracts, twelve in number, in which is briefly set forth their history and principles. They call themselves the “Catholic Apostolic Church,” claiming that their church is a restored state of the church as it existed in and soon after, Christ’s time. I can do no better in stating their sentiments than to quote from their own writings. In their introductory tract they say:—

“God has restored apostles to his church, to bring back the ways of holiness, and to the realities of holy worship, all who will hear his voice through them, and to anoint them with the Holy Ghost, so that they may escape the judgments that are impending over apostate Christianity, and who may stand before the Son of man. He inspires prophets, also, who, speaking in his name, proclaim the speedy coming of the Lord.”

In tract No. 2 they state, “The ordinary means of regeneration, then, is the sacrament of baptism.” I suppose, however, that their baptism is sprinkling, as the baptismal font in their church was not much larger than a Roman Catholic font of holy water, too small to admit of immersion. That they recognize sprinkling as baptism is also apparent from what they state in tract No. 4: “Christian men may call themselves members of the Greek, Roman, Anglican, or any other communion, but God regards them all as members of the one church and body of his Son.”

Of the church, they say it is established on the four-fold ministry of Christ. We read in tract No. 5, “The four-fold ministry was inherent in Christ and manifested by him. So his church, being an outgrowth of himself, Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers are in his church.” That Christ filled these four offices they prove by Heb. 3: 1; Acts 7: 37; Luke 4: 18; John 10: 11.

In tract No. 6 they state, respecting the church, “The apostles are the nucleus of the church. They set over the church deacons, appoint elders (presbyters or priests) in every city. Bishops or angels are set over the church by the apostles. Deacons are chosen by the people, but elders or bishops were called by word of prophecy. Elders, bishops, and deacons are ordained by the apostles.”

In tract No. 9 they say of the Mosaic priesthood, “The sprinkling of the blood, the daily meat and drink offerings, and the incense, the trimming and lighting of the lamps, and the continual service of the tabernacle all showed forth spiritual and eternal worship and service which the church should offer, in the Holy Ghost, day by day, before the Lord.” “But the church offers no sacrifice for the taking away of sin. She does on earth what Christ is doing in Heaven. There he presents himself to the Father as the Lamb that had been slain. Here in the holy eucharist she also brings before the Father the memorial of that body and blood once offered upon the cross, ‘once for all, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.’”

As proof that it is right to have a literal altar on which to make an offering of the eucharist to God as the priests offered the blood of beasts while the smoke of literal incense rises before the altar, they quote Heb. 13: 10, and Mal. 1: 11.

In tract No. 11 we read, “In the eucharist is found a summary of all the types which exhibit the atonement and sacrifice of Christ.”

“The principal parts of the eucharistic service are transacted within the sanctuary, a part of the church answering to the holiest of all in the tabernacle.”

“The twelve loaves of shew bread, the type of Christ the bread of life, which remained on the table of proposition, in the holy place, for seven days, were consumed on the eighth day.”

By the same analogy they claim that the eucharist that remains from the consecration on one first-day is consumed on the next first-day.

This people hold an early morning, and evening service every day in the week, of which they say, in tract No. 12, “The order of the morning and evening prayer, and exhortation by the evangelist, and in the evening by the pastor, corresponds to the whole action of slaying the lamb and placing it upon the altar.”

In this service, “during the same the angel (bishop) takes from the tabernacle the symbols of the body and blood of Christ, and proposes or places them on the altar, in sight of all; signifying that it is only as pleading the sacrifice of Christ that we can present to God any act of worship.”

In the evening the ministry is given by the angel and the elders, and consists of short meditations on the subject supplied by the angel in the morning. This act is antitypical to that of Aaron in lighting the lamps, and is symbolized in the church by the seven-fold lamp, burning before the altar, which is lighted by the deacons, as soon as the introductory part of the service is over.

There were more than a score of robed persons engaged in the service which I witnessed. The robes were of various forms and colors. To those who seek a “splendid ritual,” this was, in some respects, an imposing sight.

I quote from another tract of theirs concerning it:—

“Its worship strikes the imagination of the educated beholder as the very worship celebrated by Tertullian or by Hippolytus. That venerable presbyter, those ardent young evangelists, those black-vested deacons, the ancient anthem, and still more ancient incense burning; the homily, the hymn, the utterance, and the eucharist, transport us in sacred fancy to an antiquity beyond the reach of Romish or other rites. And yet how fitting is it to all the wants of To-day. That unique confession of the sin of schism, that prayerful remembrance of the dead, that earnest recognition of a PRESENT CHRIST, that all-pervading devotion without doctrine, does it not give shape and language to the aspirations of the soul alienated from all Churches, yet quite unable to do without them? It may well be so, for this ritual is the product of many minds, trained in diverse schools, united in their belief of a Divine mission, and searching, under the impression of a Divine command, up and down Christendom for the scattered vessels of the sanctuary, to find and to rebuild. And the priesthood!—consisting of men of various sects and vocations, not all of them separated from those vocations—it may not exceed the priesthood of other Churches in devotion to prescribed duty; but its functions certainly appear at once more comprehensive and more precise, every man having a special work, and the entire work including ministration to every want or circumstance of humanity; the daily service of the altar and the pulpit, the visitation of the sick, the relief of the distressed, and the absolution of the burdened.”

Of their history I quote from tract No. 5 of their series of twelve: “In 1830 a young man in the west of Scotland spoke with tongues. Power came upon two brothers and their sisters of another family living a few miles off. All these persons were of noted godliness and sobriety of character.

“Rev. Edward Irving, minister of the Scotch church, Regent Square, accepted the doctrine and work and was shortly ejected from his church.”

They state that “utterances were made by these persons, calling attention to the symbols of the Old Testament, especially those of the tabernacle. These were explained in the light of prophetic words as shadowing forth the true spiritual worship to be observed by the church evermore.”

It seems they decided that while these things signified Christ’s work, that it also meant his ministers on earth; so they have taken the same position as the Mormons, although in different form of carrying it out, namely, that both the Aaronic and Melchisedec priesthood are now carried out in the ministry of the church on earth.

It is due, perhaps, that I should say of this people, that with all their forms and ceremonies the greatest degree of reverence, dignity, and devotion are manifest, and that they are still earnest advocates of the immediate personal coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is apparent, I think, to all our brethren, where this people, who had so much light on the doctrine of Christ’s coming, fell into formalism. If these were genuine movings of God’s Spirit among them, he designed to show them his sanctuary, that they might be prepared to understand Christ’s present position, and the true event to take place at the end of the twenty-three hundred days, and so stand as the Seventh-day Adventists have, the shock of the passing of the time in 1844.

But alas! the leaders in the movement here were believers, to a great extent, in many forms and ceremonies, and mistook the voice that called attention to the great and closing work of Christ as our High Priest, as a call to establish new ritualism, which exceeds in its many variations and changes that of both the church of England and of Rome. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.