Well, what then? That the Chuch of Rome did not continue in faith is a matter beyond controversy, at least with the Provost, for the XIXth. Article says, “As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith.”
If then the Church of Rome did not stand by faith, and erred in their living, their ceremonies, and matters of faith, St. Paul said it was to be cut off; and if “the power of the Keys” were present at all on earth it acted against the Church, and not by the Church, at the time. And if one asks, when it so acted? the answer is, that the action of the Lord in the Seven Churches of Asia was an action applicable to the whole Church at the period. The Church action then was not exceptional, but representative. Judgment did begin then at the house of God, as St. Peter said—The Lord holds the stars in His hand and judges in the midst of the seven, simultaneously, as the language itself proves. (See Abp. Trench on the Seven Churches.) But where, after this, are we to look for the power of the Keys? On what did it operate? Or were the Keys lost and the door left open? At all events, the door was soon left wide enough open, in the history that comes after.
APPENDIX B.
Mr. Darby, in letter to Mr. Spurr of Sheffield, Feb. 19, 1864 concerning an act of excommunication, a letter since published, says, “I take part in this act, and hold him to be outside the Church of God on earth, being outside what represents it in London. I am bound by Scripture to count him so. I come to Sheffield; there he breaks bread, and is—in what? Not in the Church of God on earth, for he is out of it in London, and there are not two Churches of God on earth, cannot be, so as to be in one and out of another.”
Mr. Kelly in his lectures on the Church of God, pp. 32, 33, speaking of their assemblies as the recovery of the Church, which is the only solid divine rock, says, “I cannot doubt that its recovery in any measure is vouchsafed of God, in view of the Lord’s speedy coming.” And again, “I call upon you all to beware lest Satan should, in any insidious way, lead you from the only solid divine rock in the midst of the rising surges of apostacy.”
Mr. Patterson in his Blackrock lectures (p. 32), calls the Church the City of Refuge, of which their meetings are now the expres-
