Fish, E. J. Ecclesiology : A Fresh Inquiry as to The Fundamental Idea and Constitution of the New Testament Church. With a Supplement on Ordination. New York: The Authors' Publishing Company, 1875. [11812]
Dark purple cloth decorated in black, gilt title to spine, top of spine & corner tips frayed, joints good, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. 1882 gift inscription and several name stamps on the ffep. 399 clean pp. plus publisher's catalogue. Good. Hardcover.
Starr, A Baptist Bibliography, no. E3198.
"Doctor Fish disposes this volume in four parts. - I. The Fundamental Idea of the Church; II. The New Testament Church Constitution; III. Application of Principles; IV. A Supplement on Ordination - and addresses himself to his themes with the full earnestness of ability, clearness of logic, and conscientiousness of spirit which comprehensive treatment requires. As a 'building fitly framed together,' it is a fair-minded and standard contribution to the best religious literature of the Christian age." - publisher.
The author makes a distinction between the Church and the Kingdom and labors to prove that the local, individual congregation is the church of the New Testament. "By the local idea, we mean, as is perhaps already apparent, that the true and actual church is a local and individual society with a definite constitution...Our proposition then is, that the local, generic and collective uses of the term church are its only uses in the New Testament where it means the Lord's ecclesia." p. 77 & 78.
Ezra Job Fish (1828-1890), a somewhat obscure Baptist minister from Michigan. We find that he addressed the Lenawee Baptist Association at their 1866 meeting, which was put into print.
