authority of any system of church polity, are its obvious adaptation to promote the interests of true piety, and to cherish toward the Universal Church the feelings of Christian charity. Whatever scheme of government is seen by its own inherent constitution to provide most securely and most amply for these vital and essential parts of Christianity, of whatever else it may be destitute in the way of secular grandeur or power, will commend itself at length to the conviction of all thinking, reflecting, and impartial persons, as the nearest approach to the plan laid down in the New Testament. Apply therefore your principles to the production of these results. Submit yourselves not only in these matters, but in all others, to the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, as expressed in his Word. "Submit yourselves unto every ordinance of man, [in civil matters] for the Lord's sake; whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free [or seeking to be free] and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men; love the brotherhood; fear God; honour the king." "And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.” In all our conduct towards our brethren of the Church of England, as well as towards other denominations of professing Christians, let us manifest as well as cherish the most candid respect for their conscientious convictions, the most tender regard for their feelings, combined with that genuine affection which is due to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. "I could imagine that the latter day glory were begun if I heard on all sides, and from many voices, a demand for UNION, not uniformity; for UNIVERSAL COMMUNION, not sectarian exclusiveness. This is the spirit which in its perfect development will raise every sect above its petty partialities, and at last fuse all into one great and consolidated whole. Deep, pure, unaffected love, penetrating and pervading the Christian church, uniting all its parts in actual fellowship, and making it visibly as well as spiritually one; this is the weapon for subduing the world. The virtue of love has been much lauded, but little felt; often inculcated, but seldom exemplified; talked of, but not understood. Men, judging from their conduct, have supposed it to signify love to their own sect! Marvellous affection! or love to all others, when they shall have joined theirs; magnanimous liberality! Love of this sort has had its millennium. It has done nothing but mischief during the long period of far more than a thousand years. Another and a more comprehensive principle is required now. I cannot but hope that the day is approaching when the sublime experiment of its power is to be tried. The bigot of every denomination has taken for his text, The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,' and on this he has rung his eternal changes, arguing for the subjugation of all to sympathy with himself before he could unite them in the communion of the Church. I should say to all who agree in the profession of primary and fundamental truth, but who differ in secondary matters, 'study first to be peaceable, then pure;' love in the heart will become light in the intellect; you will feel yourselves perpetually approaching to greater uniformity in proportion as you have more of that visible oneness which will for ever be seen in the church of heaven, you will display less of that diversity of sentiment which hitherto has distinguished and often distracted the church on earth."* "It is the IMAGE OF CHRIST and not human forms of worship, or human constitutions, or human creeds, that must form the principle of a universal fellowship of saints and the * Fiat Justitia, 62, 63. glory of the millennial church. 'Blessed likeness! enchanting loveliness!' Are the painted earth-made vizors which conceal the human face divine,' and substitute in its room their own deformed and forbidding visages, worth the price they have cost us? worth the conflicts which have all the pains of military warfare without its recompence, and all the hardihood of chivalry without its generosity? worth the broken unity, the blighted peace, the tarnished beauty, the prostrate energy, the humbled honours of the church of God? Ah no! our hearts feel that they are not! What then remains but to lay aside our petty contests,* to strike our hands in a covenant of love, a 'holy league,' offensive and defensive, for the common Christianity-to present our consolidated front to the legions of error and death; and march on under the command of the Captain of our Salvation, till the nations mingle their shouts in that thundering alleluia, The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. "† Commending these sentiments to your holy and deliberate attention, I suscribe myself, My esteemed and beloved Flock, Your Pastor, J. A. JAMES. * This expression, in the splendid passage to which it belongs, must be interpreted in a qualified sense. The closing paragraph of Mr. Redford's pamphlet en titled "The Church of England Indefensible from Holy Scripture." LIBRARY |