AN APOLOGY FOR THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER-SCHISM. OBJ. "I conscientiously dissent from the Church of England, and in so doing I am no Schismatic from the Church of Christ; because according to the Scriptural idea of the Nature and Authority of Christ's Church, and of the Nature of Communion with, and Schism from it, I may separate from the Church of England, and never, theless continue a Member of the Church of Christ.” Q. 1.-What is the Scriptural idea of the Nature of Christ's Church? The Church of Christ is a perpetually visible Society, instituted by Him for the regular administration of the affairs of His Kingdom, whose Members are united together for their order and Government according to the Rules of the Christian Religion, and called in the figurative language of Scripture, the "Body of Christ." That this definition of the Christian Church is perfectly Scriptural may be ascertained by examining its three principal characteristics, viz. Visibility. Unity, and Perpetuity. Now, first, it cannot be doubted that the Church is a Visible Society, because it is a Society, and every Society is necessarily more or less visible. Moreover, we cannot suppose that Christ would institute an outward and Visible Religion, unless he intended also to institute an outward and Visible Church; and if we recollect that the Church is united to him by a Visible Covenant, Visible Sacraments, and a Visible Profession, we must believe it to be visible also. The parts and profession of the Church of Christ are visible; our entrance into it is in a visibla manner by the Sacrament of Baptism, (for we are not admitted into it before we have received that Sacrament;) and our Communion with it is in different outward and visible acts, which the representation of it by a body or building, certainly proves. Indeed it the Christian Church be not a Visible Communion, subject to certain Ordinances, professing certain Doctrines, and under a certain Government and Discipline, why should its Founder have said "Tell it to the Church?" If there had been no Visible Church, His injunction would have been useless. If it be not a Visible Communion, why did He liken it to a "city on a hill which cannot be hid,"* set up as "the Light of the World," an "Ensign to the Nations," unto which all nations should flee, or it would witness against them, and wherein its Members "should take sanctuary and find a refuge? It is therefore evident that the Scriptural idea of the Church of Christ comprehends Visibility as one of its qualities. Nor is the Church less a United than a Visible Society, because Unity is essential to its very existence, which unity consists in that uniformity which all its Members profess in Belief and Practice, who are compacted together by the bands and ligaments of one common Christianity. When I say that Unity is essential to the Church of Christ, I by no means wish to be understood as supposing it incapable of division, or separation, but as merely asserting that Communion with it must be uninterruptedly maintained, and separation from it as constantly avoided; because I am perfectly satisfied that as God has instituted an outward Church as well as an outward Religion, so Communion with the former must be as obligatory as a Belief in the latter. Surely if Christ be the Vine, it is incumbent upon us to continue the branches, seeing that "as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the Vine,"§ no more can we, except we abide in Him, even as " by one Spirit we are all Baptized into one body." Thus we find upon reference to St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, that that Apostle argues from the connection which subsists between the Members of the Natural Body, the necesssity of a similar connection subsisting between the Members of the Spiritual Body, for "as the Body is one, and hath many Members, and all the Members of that one Rody, being many, are one Body; so also are Christ," and his Church. From which he very naturally infers that no Schism, no Division, or Separation, should take place in one body more than in the other, but that we all ought to "endeavour to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," because "there is but one Body and one Spirit, and but one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism.' But, thirdly, not only is the Church a Visible and United Society, but it is also a Perpetual Society; I mean it will be always a Visible and United Society, as is evident from those numerous Texts of Scripture which speak of the Church as a Society that not only exists, but as a Society that Matth. v. 14. + John viii. 12. || Isa. v. 26. John xv. 4. 1 Cor. xii, 12. ** Ephes. iv. 3, 4, 5. "** 1 Cor. xii, 13 will continue to exist until the consummation of the World, and with which Christian Communion will be perpetuated to the end of time. And now that we have seen what is the Scriptural idea of the Nature of the Church of Christ, (which I could easily prove to have been also the old and established notion received and adopted in the very earliest ages of Christianity by the Successors of the Apostles,) we will turn to the definition given of the same Society. by our Dissenting Brethren, who conceive it to be "a voluntary Society of Christians meeting together to attend Gospel Ordinances, in the same place." Now here is no certain and necessary idea of Visibility, Unity, or Perpetuity; of Visibility, because from the circumstance of its being, according to their own definitiou, a Voluntary Society, there cannot exist that Form of exterior consistence which is essential to the idea of Visibility; of Unity, because it is equally applicable to all assemblies of Christians, and is consequently comprehensive of all the different Sects into which the Christian Church has been divided; of Perpetuity, because every "Voluntary Society" is capable of dissolution. But it has been proved that Visibility, Unity, and Perpetuity are essential characteristics of the Christian Church, and consequently the definition given by our Dissenting Brethren must be defective. It remains therefore to be shown what and wherefore they object against the definition which I have reason to believe is warranted by Scripture, viz. that "the Church of Christ is a Visible, United, and Perpetual Society." Now from all that I can learn, their objections against the Visibility of the Christian Church are founded upon the apparent impossibility of wicked men being Members of Christ's Visible and Mystical Body. But if I may be permitted, I would express a fear lest they may have committed an oversight in this respect, by not having sufficiently discriminated between the Visible and Invisible Body of Christ. Thus they have been induced to suppose that at the time of the impending flood, the Family of Noah contained all who at that period were Members of the Visible Church. But I think that upon examination this will be found to be a mistake; for the Visible Body or Church of Christ comprehends not only the true Members, but the profane sinner also; because the Visible Church is the great House of God, in which the Righteous and the Wicked, the Sheep and the Goats, the Corn and the Chaff, are mingled together. It was upon this principle that our Saviour compared his Church to "a net cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind." it was upon this principle he compared it to " a wedding that was filled with guests both good and bad," and to "a field sowed with good seed and tares," in which the latter, manifestly known and seen by all men, grow intermingled with good corn, and will continue to do so unto the end of the World; thereby implying that His Visible Church established upon Earth, consisted of Vide "The Protestant Dissenter's Catechism." (Part II. Sect. 1. Quest. 9.) 2 + Matt. xiii. 47. #Matth. xii. 10. Matt. xiii. 25. |