Volume VII Part 10 (2/2)

[3] Mark x. 14.

[4] 1 Cor. vii. 14. Acts xvi. 15, 33.

SERMON XVII.

The Unity of the Church.

”_And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of h.e.l.l shall not prevail against it._”--Matt. xvi. 18.

Too many persons at this day,--in spite of what they see before them, in spite of what they read in history,--too many persons forget, or deny, or do not know, that Christ has set up a kingdom in the world.

In spite of the prophecies, in spite of the Gospels and Epistles, in spite of their eyes and their ears,--whether it be their sin or their misfortune, so it is,--they do not obey Him in that way in which it is His will that He should be obeyed. They do not obey Him in His Kingdom; they think to be His people, without being His subjects. They determine to serve Him in their own way, and though He has formed His chosen into one body, they think to separate from that body, yet to remain in the number of the chosen.

Far different is the doctrine suggested to us by the text. In St.

Peter, who is there made the rock on which the Church is founded, we see, as in a type, its unity, stability, and permanence. It is set up in one name, not in many, to show that it is one; and that name is Peter, to show that it will last, or, as the Divine Speaker proceeds, that ”the gates of h.e.l.l shall not prevail against it.” In like manner, St. Paul calls it ”the pillar and ground of the truth[1].”

This is a subject especially brought before us at this time of year[2], and it may be well now to enlarge upon it.

Now that all Christians are, in some sense or other, one, in our Lord's eyes, is plain, from various parts of the New Testament. In His mediatorial prayer for them to the Almighty Father, before His pa.s.sion, He expressed His purpose that they should be _one_. St. Paul, in like manner, writing to the Corinthians, says, ”As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, _so also_ is Christ. . . . . Now ye are _the Body_ of Christ, and members in particular.” To the Ephesians, he says, ”There is _one Body_, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one G.o.d and Father of all[3].”

And, further, it is to this one Body, regarded as one, that the special privileges of the Gospel are given. It is not that this man receives the blessing, and that man, but one and all, the whole body, as one man, one new spiritual man, with one accord, seeks and gains it. The Holy Church throughout the world, ”the Bride, the Lamb's wife,” is one, not many, and the elect souls are all elected in her, not in isolation.

For instance; ”He is our peace who hath made both [Jews and Gentiles]

one, . . . to make in Himself of twain _one new man_.” In the same Epistle, it is said, that all nations are ”_fellow_-heirs, and of _the same body_, and _fellow-partakers_ of His promise in Christ;” and that we must ”one and all come,” or converge, ”in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of G.o.d, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;” that as ”the husband is the head of the wife,” so ”Christ is the Head of the Church,” having ”loved it and given Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the was.h.i.+ng of water by the Word[4].” These are a few out of many pa.s.sages which connect Gospel privileges with the circ.u.mstance or condition of unity in those who receive them; the image of Christ and token of their acceptance being stamped upon them _then_, at that moment, when they are considered as _one_; so that henceforth the whole mult.i.tude, no longer viewed as mere individual men, become portions or members of the indivisible Body of Christ Mystical, so knit together in Him by Divine Grace, that all have what He has, and each has what all have.

The same great truth is taught us in such texts as speak of all Christians forming one spiritual building, of which the Jewish Temple was the type. They are temples one by one, simply as being portions of that one Temple which is the Church. ”Ye are _built up_,” says St.

Peter, ”a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to G.o.d by Jesus Christ.” Hence the word ”edification,” which properly means this building up of all Christians in one, has come to stand for individual improvement; for it is by being incorporated into the one Body, that we have the promise of life; by becoming members of Christ, we have the gift of His Spirit.

Further, that unity is the condition of our receiving the privileges of the Gospel is confirmed by the mode in which the Prophets describe the Christian Church; that is, instead of addressing individuals as independent and separate from each other, they view the whole as of one body; viz. that one elect, holy, and highly-favoured Mother, of which individuals are but the children favoured through her as a channel.

”Lift up thine eyes, and behold,” says the inspired announcement; ”all these gather themselves together, and come to thee.” ”O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. .

. . . All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.”

But here it may be asked, How is this a doctrine to affect our practice? That Christians may be considered in our minds as one, is evident; it is evident, too, that they must be one in spirit; and that hereafter they will be one blessed company in heaven; but what follows now from believing that all saints are one in Christ? _This_ will be found to follow: that, as far as may be, Christians should live together in a visible society here on earth, not as a confused unconnected mult.i.tude, but united and organized one with another, by an established order, so as evidently to appear and to act as one. And this, you will at once see, _is_ a doctrine nearly affecting our practice, yet neglected far and wide at this day.

Any complete and accurate proof indeed of this doctrine shall not here be attempted; nay, I shall not even bring together, as is often done[5], the more obvious texts on which it rests; let it suffice, on this occasion, to make one or two general remarks bearing upon it, and strongly recommending it to us.

1. When, then, I am asked, why we Christians must unite into a visible body or society, I answer, first, that the very earnestness with which Scripture insists upon a spiritual unseen unity at present, and a future unity in heaven, of itself directs a pious mind to the imitation of that unity visible on earth; for why should it be so continually mentioned in Scripture, unless the thought of it were intended to sink deep into our minds, and direct our conduct here?

2. But again, our Saviour prays that we may be one in affection and in action; yet what possible way is there of many men acting _together_, except that of forming themselves into a visible body or society, regulated by certain laws and officers? and how can they act on a large scale, and consistently, unless it be a permanent body?

3. But, again, I might rest the necessity of Christian unity upon one single inst.i.tution of our Lord's, the Sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is a visible rite confessedly, and St. Paul tells us that, by it, individuals are incorporated into an already existing body. He is speaking of the visible body of Christians, when he says, ”By one Spirit are we all baptized _into one body_[6].” But if every one who wishes to become a Christian must come to an existing visible body for the gift, as these words imply, it is plain that no number of men can ever, consistently with Christ's intention, set up a Church for themselves. All must receive their Baptism from Christians already baptized, and they in their turn must have received the Sacrament from former Christians, themselves already incorporated in a body then previously existing. And thus we trace back a visible body or society even to the very time of the Apostles themselves; and it becomes plain that there can be no Christian in the whole world who has not received his t.i.tle to the Christian privileges from the original apostolical society. So that the very Sacrament of Baptism, as prescribed by our Lord and His Apostles, implies the existence of one visible a.s.sociation of Christians, and only one; and that permanent, carried on by the succession of Christians from the time of the Apostles to the very end of the world.

This is the _design_, of Christ, I say, implied in the inst.i.tution of the baptismal rite. Whether He will be merciful, over and above His promise, to those who through ignorance do not comply with this design, or are in other respects irregular in their obedience, is a further question, foreign to our purpose. Still it remains the revealed design of Christ to connect all His followers in one by a visible ordinance of incorporation. The Gospel faith has not been left to the world at large, recorded indeed in the Bible, but there left, like other important truths, to be taken up by men or rejected, as it may happen.

Truths, indeed, in science and the arts _have_ been thus left to the chance adoption or neglect of mankind; they are no one's property; cast at random upon the waves of human opinion. In any country soever, men may appropriate them at once, and form themselves at their will into a society for their extension. But for the more momentous truths of revealed religion, the G.o.d, who wrought by human means in their first introduction, still preserves them by the same. Christ formed a body.

He secured that body from dissolution by the bond of a Sacrament. He committed the privileges of His spiritual kingdom and the maintenance of His faith as a legacy to this baptized society; and into it, as a matter of historical fact, all the nations _have_ flowed. Christianity has not been spread, as other systems, in an isolated manner, or by books; but from a centre, by regularly formed bodies, descendants of the three thousand, who, after St. Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, joined themselves to the Apostles' doctrine and fellows.h.i.+p.

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