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prefervation of the government of the church contituted an object of that importance in their eyes, as to fubject any the least oppofition to it to their feverest cenfure; what must they have thought of that licentious practice, which leads to its total diffolution? when, in confequence of all ideas refpecting the nature of the church having been in a great measure loft among us, men look not beyond themselves for that commiffion, by which they presume to enter upon the ministry of holy things; drawing congregations after them, and thereby dividing Christian profeffors into as many fects and parties, as there are felf-fufficient teachers to be found, who have an end to anfwer, or a paffion to gratify, upon the occafion.

The opinions of the present day, unhappily for us, tend to countenance a general diffolution of establishments; as if men are different creatures now from what they were in any former state of the world; and grown too wife, in this age of reafon, as it is called, to submit to any ordinances that have not received the fanction of their own immediate appointment.

But if it be true, that CHRIST formed only one church, there can be but one communion in it; and if that church be a vifible fociety, diftinctly known by its ministers and facraments, as it most certainly

is, a wilful feparation from it must be rebellion against the Divine ordinance, whenever it takes place. For ignorance with refpect to the nature of the Chriftian church, can make no alteration in the plan upon which Divine Wisdom has formed it: confequently schifm, or a separate communion from that church, must, whatever ideas of prejudice or error may prevail on the fubject, be an heinous fin in the eyes of God..

To form a proper judgment upon this fubject, we muft not be governed by the opinions and practices of the world upon it; because it ever has been the misfortune of the world, to be more fond of its own inventions than of GoD's commands. And there is this obvious reafon for it; what man invents has a more strict correspondence with the corrupt inclinations of his depraved nature, than what GOD ordains: and hence it is, that we are fo readily induced to fubftitute human imaginations in the place of Divine inftitutions. The one are creatures of our own, and tend in a greater or lefs degree to the gratification of our humours and paffions; the other, as controling our inclinations, and abridging our liberty, are on that account lefs welcome to the natural man.

To deal honeftly with ourfelves, therefore, we fhould place this fubject upon the ground on which

it ought to stand. By proceeding thus, we fhall find that one great object in the establishment of the church, was to unite men by the bond of charity in constant communion with GoD and each other; that by entering upon a life of peace, of love, and fellowfhip with the Holy Ghoft upon earth, the members of it might be prepared for that more perfect ftate provided for them in a better world.

A church, the members of which were to be thus joined together in Christian fellowship, presented a picture of too heavenly a fociety for the grand enemy of mankind to behold without envy; and which, if fuffered to continue in a perfect state, would most certainly tend to render those beings happy, whom, from the creation of the world, it has been the conftant employment of this destroyer, as he is emphatically called, to render miferable. From the moment, therefore, that the church was founded upon earth, the malice of this evil one has been directed against it. And it not being in his power to destroy the church, (the Divine Founder of it having expressly declared, that the gates of hell fhall not finally prevail against it) his next object has been to render it as ineffectual to the purpose of its establishment as pof

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

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Herein, then, confists the nature of fchifm; and fuch is the origin of it: it proceeds, for the most part, from that spirit of pride and independence, which caft 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 defign to unite by an harmonious interchange of fervice and fellowship.

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Wherever, then, there is a wilful feparation from the communion of the church of CHRIST, there, according to the original idea upon this fubject, 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 fchifm, we cannot be surprised at finding the Apostles and primitive writers making use of such strong language, whenever it became the subject of consideration; with the view of guarding their disciples against what

appeared to them, and what, it should be supposed, must appear to every one who duly confiders the nature of CHRIST's church, to be a fin of the most dangerous kind; because, to omit leffer confiderations, it is a fin, whereby a man cuts himself off from the means of grace, and expofeth 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 destruction of his own church and country, after having collected the numberless ftriking paffages from the writings of the ancient fathers relative to this fubject, thus concludes upon it: "It is but a small 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 fchifm."

* HAMMOND.

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