صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

fible; by fowing the feeds of division where only thofe of love and harmony were defigned to grow.

Herein, then, confifts the nature of schism; and fuch is the origin of it: it proceeds, for the most part, from that spirit of pride and independence, which cast the devil out of heaven; and which, it is to be feared, will difqualify many for admiffion into that bleffed place. And the heinousness of the fin confifts in this, that it is not only a fyftem of oppofition to the Divine will, but that, fo far as it prevails, it counteracts the gracious purpose which CHRIST had in view in the establishment of his church; by dividing and feparating those members, which it was his design to unite by an harmonious interchange of service and fellowship.

Wherever, then, there is a wilful feparation from the communion of the church of CHRIST, there, according to the original idea upon this subject, a divifion of CHRIST's myftical body takes place; and there this fin of fchifm is to be found.

Such, then, being the nature and confequences of schiím, we cannot be surprised at finding the Apostles and primitive writers making use of such strong language, whenever it became the fubject of confideration; with the view of guarding their disciples against what

appeared to them, and what, it should be fuppofed, must appear to every one who duly confiders the nature of CHRIST's church, to be a fin of the most dangerous kind; becaufe, to omit leffer confiderations, it is a fin, whereby a man cuts himself off from the means of grace, and exposeth himself to the danger of denying the faith. A learned divine* of the last century, who lived to fee the effects of this fin fully exemplified in the complete deftruction of his own church and country, after having collected the numberless striking paffages from the writings of the ancient fathers relative to this fubject, thus concludes upon it: "It is but a fmall part (fays he) of the character of fchifm, that it is contrary to faith, contrary to charity, and to all the advantages which belong to a member of the church-the benefits of prayer and facraments; that it is as bad as herefy, and that there never was any herefy in the church which was not founded in it; and that it is constantly forced, in its own defence, to conclude in fome herefy or other: each of these particulars, and all of them taken together, are but a fmall part of the character which the ancient fathers of the church give us of the fin of schism.”

HAMMOND,

It would draw out this difcourfe into an inconvenient length, were I to bring forward one-tenth part of what has been written upon this subject, by those who saw it in the fame light in which it was seen by the learned divine just mentioned. One additional quotation from Archbishop SHARP fhall, therefore, fuffice for our prefent purpose.

"If human conjectures (fays the Archbishop) about the reasons and caufes of Divine judgments may be allowed, it will appear from history and experience, that there has been as much war and blood-fhed caused in the world, as many nations de. folated, as many churches ruined, by the malignity and evil influence of this fin of fchifm, as any other. And if ever GOD in judgment shall think fit to give over this flourishing church of ours as a prey to its enemies, we shall have good reason to believe, that the unneceffary divifions and quarrels among ourfelves had a great hand in bringing on the judgment."

It must seem strange to a modern Christian, that a fin, of which the world now appears to know nothing, should be thus described. He will be apt to conclude, either that the church of the prefent day muft be a very different fociety from what it once was, or that the old writers upon this fubject were

wonderfully mistaken in their opinion. But if he be a wife man, he will confider, that should what has been faid upon this fubject be true, his past ignorance upon it cannot poffibly make it otherwise. He will confequently think it to be his duty to bring the matter to a fair examination, and fuffer his judg ment to be determined by the evidence.

"The fum of all (to make use of the words of Bishop GROVE) is in fhort this. Befides these men who justify their feparation from the Church of England by charging her with requiring finful terms of communion, (which is the only thing that can justify their feparation, if it could be proved;) there are others who separate lightly and wantonly, for want of a due sense of the nature of church communion, and our obligations to preferve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. They have no notion at all of a church, or no notion of one church, or know not wherein the unity and communion of this church confifts: and these men think it is indifferent, whether they communicate with any church at all; or that they secure themselves from schism, by commu nicating fometimes with one church, and fometimes with another; that they may choose their church according to their own fancies, and change them

again whenever their humour alters. But I hope, whoever confiders carefully what I have now writ and attends to those paffionate exhortations of the Gospel to peace, and unity, and brotherly love, which cannot be preserved but in one communion, which is the unity of the body of CHRIST, and the peace and love of fellow-members; will not only heartily pray to the God of Peace, to reftore peace and unity to his church, but be careful how he divides the church himself; and will use his utmost endeavours to heal the prefent fchifms and divifions of the church of CHRIST."*

* Should my reader wish to see the subject of Church Com munion more fully handled, he will not fail to meet with complete fatisfaction, by reference to a difcourfe, entitled " A Perfuasive to Communion with the Church of England," by Dr. GROVE, bishop of Chichester, to be met with among the "London Cases." And fhould he be desirous of having the ground on which the two preceding chapters ftand, more firmly established, (fhould fuch additional establishment be judged neceffary) I can refer him to no publication, in which he will find more information on church matters brought into a smaller compass, than in "LESLEY'S Discourse concerning the Qualifications requisite ta adminifter the Sacraments:" the fupplement to which prefents him with a fummary detail of authorities for Epifcopacy, taken out of the Fathers and Councils in the firft four hundred and fifty years after CHRIST: a detail, which appears to leave no thing undone, that human evidence is capable of doing, for the fatisfaction of every intelligent reader on this fubject,

« السابقةمتابعة »