Parochial and Plain Sermons

MxT. xvi. 18. " 4nd I sa also unto thee, That tou art Peter, aad upon this roclc I tvill build Mg Church; and the gares of hell shall hot Trevail agai,st if.'"

O0 many persons at this day,—in spite of what they see before them, in spire 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 spire of the Gospels and Epistles, in spire of their eyes and their ears,—whether it be their sin or their misfortune, so it is,—they do not obey Ililn in that way in which it is tlis will that IIe should be obcyed. They do hot obey ltiln in His Kingdom; they think fo be tIis people, without being IIis subjects. They determine fo serve Him in their own way; and though He bas formed IIis ehosen into one body, they think fo separate 5"om that body, yet to remain in the number of the ehosen. Far different is the doctrine suggested to us by the text. In St. Peter, who is there madc the rock on which the Church is foundcd, we sec, as in, type, ifs unity, stability, and pcrm,ncnce. If is set up in one name, not in nmny, to show that if is one; and that name is Peter, fo show tha.t if will last, or, as the Divine Speaker proceeds, that " the gares of hell shall hot prevail ag, ainst if." In like manner, St. Paul calls if " the pillar and ground of the truth ." This is a subject especially brou'ht belote us af this time of year , and if m.ay be well now to enlarge upon it.:Now that all Christians are, in some sense or other, one, in out Lord's eyes, is plain, from various parts ot' the:New Testament. In IIis mediatorial prayer fi»r them to the Almiffhty Father, before IIis passion, IIc expressed IIis purpose that, hey should be one. St. Paul, in like manner, xvritin to the Coriuthians, says, " As the body is one, and hath many members, and ail the members of tlmt one body, being man33 are one body, so also is Christ...... Now ve are [he Body of Christ, and members in partiêular." To the Ephesians, he says, " There is one _Bochd, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of ail .'" And, further, it is to this one Body, regarded as one,  1 Tire. iii. 15. 2 Easter and Whitsuntide.  John xvii. 23. 1 Cor. xii. 12. Eph. ix-. 4—6.

23a The Uzity of the Church.

that the special privileges of the Gospel are given. It is net that this man rceeives the blcssing, and that man, but one and all, the whole body, as one man, one new spiritual man, with one accord, seeks and gains if. The tloly Chureh throughout the world, "the:Bride, the Lamb's wife," is ont, net nmny, and the cleet seuls arc all elceted in her, net in isolation. For instance; " IIe is out lcaee who hath ruade both [Jews and Gentiles] one,... te lnake in Ililnself of twain one teto In the saine Epistlc, it is said, that all ,ations are "/èlloo-hcirs, and of the saine body, and yèllow-parlakers of IIis promise in Christ;" and that we must '" one and a.ll corne," or eonvee, " in the nnity of the çaith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfeet man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;" that as '" the husband is the head of the wife," se "Christ is the Head of the Chureh," having " loved it and given IIimself for if, that IIe might sanetify and eleanse it with the washing" of water by the Word ." These are a fcw ou of many passages whieh eonnect Gospel privileges with the circumstance or condition of unity in those who receive them; "the ilnagc of Christ and tokcn of their acccpanee bcing, stamped upon them lkeu, af that moment, whcn they arc considercd as one; se that hcnceforth the wholc multitude, no long'er viewed as mere individual mon, become portions or members of the indivisible Body of Christ Mystical, se  Eph. ii. 14; iii. 6; iv. 13; v. 23—26.

knit together in Him by Divine Grace, that all have what IIe bas, and eaeh has what all ha.ve. The salue gre,t truth is t,ught us in sueh texts as speak of all Christians fol'ming one spiritual building, of whieh the Jewish Temple was the type. They are temples one by one, simply as being portions of that one Temple whieh is the Chureh. "Ye are b«ilt up," says St. Peter, ", spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Goal by Jesns Christ." Henee the word "edifieation," whieh properly means this building up of all Christians in one, has corne fo stand for individual improvement.; for it is by being ineorporated into the one Body, that we h,ve the promise of life; by becoming" members of Christ, we bave the gift of His Spirit. Furlher, th,qt unity is the condition of our receiving the privileges of the Gospel is confirmed by thc mode in which the Prophets describc thc Christian Church; that is, instead of addressing" individuals as independcnt and sep,rate from each other, they vicw the whole as of one body; viz. that one elect, holy, and hig, hly-favoured Mothcr, of which individuals are but the children fvoured through her as, channel. "Lift up thine eyes, and behold," says the iuspired announccment; "all these gather themselves togcther, and corne fo thee." " 0 thou affiicted, tossed with tempest., and not comforted. behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires..... All thy children

34 T]e Uity of t/e shall be taught of the Lord, and grea shall be the peaee of fly ehildren." Bu here i may be asked, How is this a doctrine fo uffee out praetiee? Tha Christians may be eonsidered in onr minds as one, is eviden; i is eviden, too, tha hey mus be one in spiri; and tlmt hereaffer they will be one blesoed company iii heaven; but what follows now from belicving that all saints are one in Christ? T.is will be fomd fo follow: that, as far as may be, Christians should live tog'ethcr in a visible society hcre on earth, hot as a confised unconnected multitude, but united and organized one with another, by an es- blishcd order, so as evidently fo appear and to act as one. And this, you will at once see, is a doctrine nearly affecting our practice, yet neglectcd far and wide at this day. Any complete and accurate proof indeed of this doctrine shall not here be attempIed; nay, I shall hot even bring together, as is often done , the more obvious texts on which if rests i let it suffice, on this occasion, to make one or two general renmrks bearing upon if, and strongly rccommending it to us. l. ghen, 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 unitΠat present, and a future unity in heaven, of itself directs a pious mind to the imitation of * Vide Tracts for th Times, No. 11.

The U1dty of the Church. 3 5 that unity visible on earth; for why should if be so eontinually mentioned in 8eripture, unless the thoug'ht of it were intended to sink deep into out minds, and direct our eonduet here? o. But,qgain, out 8aviour prays that we m,qy be one in aft'eetion and in action; yet what possible way is there of many men aeting" to9etker, exeept that of forming themselves into a visible body or soeiety, reg'ulated by certain laws and ofl[eers? and how ean they act on a large scale, and consistently, uuless it be a permanent body? 3. But, again, I might rest the necessity of Christian unity upon one sing'le institution of our Lord's, the Sacramcnt of Baptism. Baptism is a visible rite con= fessedly; and St. Paul tells us that, by it, individuals are iucorporated into an already existing body. He is speaking of the visible body of Cristians, when he says, " By one Spirit are we ail baptized ido ote ho<lys. '' But if every one who wishes to become a Cristian must eome to an existing visible body for the gift, as these words imply, it is I)lain that no number of men eau ever, consistently with Crist's intention, set up a Church for themselves. All must receive their Baptism from Cristians already baptized, and they in their turn must have received the Sacrament fi-om former Cris= tians, themselves already iucorporated in a body then previously existing. And thus we trace back a visible  1 Cor. xii. 13.

36 The Uffty of the Church. body or society even to the very time of the Apostles themselves; and it becomes plain that there tan be no Christian in the whole world who bas hot receivêd his title fo the Christim privileges ri'oto the original apostolical society. So tlmt the very Sacramcnt of Baptism, as prescribed by our Lord and Ilis Apostlcs, implies the existence of one visible association of Christians, and only one; and tlmt 1)ernmnent, carried on by thc succession of Christians ri'oto the rime of the Apostles to the vcry end of the world. This is the design of Christ I say, implicd in the institution of the baptismal rite. Whether IIe will bc mercifid, over and above IIis promise, to those who t, hrough ignorance do hot comply with this design, or are in other respects irregular in their obcdience, is a further question, foreign to our purin, ose. Still it remains the revealed design of Christ fo connect all His followers in one by a visible ordinance oI" incorporation. The Gospel faith has hot been let to the world at large, recorded indced in the Bible, but there left, like othêr important truths, fo be takcn up by men or rejccted, as it may happen. Truths, indeed, in science and the arts bave been thus left fo the chance adoption or neglêct of mankind; they are no one's 1)roperty; cast at random upon the waves of human opinion. In any country soever, men may appropriate them af once, and form themselves af their will into a society for their extension. But for the more momentous truths of revealed relig'ion, the God, who wrought by hmnan means in their tïrst introduction, still preserves them b 3" the same. Crist formed a bodyl IIe seeured that body fi'om dissolution by the bond of a Saerament. IIe eommitted the privileges of Itis spiritual kingdom and the maintenanee of tIis faith as a legaey fo this baptized soeiety and into if, as a matter of historieal faet, all the nations iave t|owed. Christianit.y bas hot been spread, as other systems, in an iselated manner, or by books i but from a centre, by regularly formed bodies, deseendants of the three thousand, who, after St. Peter's preaehing on the day of Penteeost, joined themselves fo the Apostles' • doctrine and fellowship. And to this apostolieal body we mnst still look for the elementary ift of graee. Graee will hot bapti.e us while we sit af home, slighting • the means whieh God bas appointed  but we must «eome unto Iount Sion, and nnto the eity of the living • God, the heavenly Jerusalem, nd fo,n innumerable eompany of angels, fo the ener,l sembly and Chureh of the tïrst-born whieh are writ.ten in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of j ust men m,de perfeet, and to Jesus the mediator of the new eovenant, and to the blood of sprinkling" that speaketh better thins than that of Abel." z. And now I will mention one other uarantee, whieh is espeeially sug'ested b2 out Iord's çords in tle text, for the visible unity and permanence of His

3 8 The Ud[y of the Church. Chureh; and that is the appointment of rulers and ministers, eutrusted with the gifts of raee, and these in succession. The ministerial orders are the ties whieh bind tog'ether the whole body of Christians in one; they a.re ifs orans, and they are moreover its moving" prineiple. Sueh an institution neeessarily implies a succession, unless the appointment was always to be miraeulous; for if men eannot administer fo themselves the rite of regeneration, if is surely as little or mueh less reasonable fo suppose tlmt they eould beeome ]3ishops or Priests on their own ordination. And St. Paul expressly shows his solieitude to seeure sueh  eontimaity of elergy for laisbrethren: "I left thee in Crete," he sa:ys to Titus, " that thou shouldest set in order the thing's tha are vntin, and ordain elders in every eity, as I had appointed thee ." And to Ti,nothy: "The" things that thou hast heard of me among' many witnesses, the same coin»cil lhou to faithf«l men, vho shall be able to teaeh others also -:." Now, we know that in civil matters nothing" tends more powerfully to strengthen and perpetuate the body politie than hereditm T rulers and nobles. The fither's lire, lais prineiples and interests, are eontinued in the son; or rather, one lire, one eharaeter, one idea, is earried on fi'om age fo age. Thus a dynasty or a nation is consolidated and secured; whereas where there is no  Titus i. 5.  2 Tire. il. 2. Vide also 1 Tire. v. 22.

T/e Un[ty af t/e C/urc/. 239 regular succession and inheritanee of this kind, there is no 8afeg'uartl of stability and tranquillity; or rather, there is every risk of revolution. For what is fo make a sueeeeding" age think and aet in the spirit of the fore'oing, but that tradition of opinion and usag'e f'rom mind fo mind whieh a sueeesslon involves? In like manner the Christian ministry affects the unity, inward and without, of the Church fo which it is attached. It is a continuous office, a standing ordinance; hot, indeed, transmitted from father to son, as under thc Mosaic covenant, for the vessels of the Christian elcctiou ueed fo be more special, as the treasure committed to them is more heaveuly: but still the Apostles bave not left it to the mere good plêasure and piety of the Christian body whether they will have a ministry or not.:Each preceding gcneration of" clerg'y have it in charge to ordain the next folloving fo their sacred office. Consider what would be sure to happen, were there no such regular transmission of the Divine gift, but each congregation vere left to choose and create for itself its own minister. This vould follow, among ofl»er evil consequences, that what is every one's duty would prove, as the proverb runs, to be no one's. When their minister or teacher died or left them, there would be first a delay in choosing a fresh one, then a reluctance, thon a forgetfidness. At last congregations would be left without teachers; and the bond of union being g'one, the Church would be brok»n up. If a ministry be a necessary part of" the

z4c The Utity of the Church. Gospel Dispensation, so must also  ministerial succession be. But the gift of g'raee has hot thus dropped out of the hands of its All-mereiful Giver. lIe has eommited to certain of IIis servants to provide for the eontinuanee of its presenee and its administration after their own rime. Eeh g'eneration provides for thc next; "the parents" 1,y up "'for the ehildren." And we know as  fct, that to this day the ministers of the Church univcrsal arc descendcd fi'om the very Apostles. Amid M1 thc changes of this world, the Church built upon St. Peter and the rcst has continued until now in the unbroken line of the ministry. And fo put other considerations out of sight, the mere fact in itself, that there has bcen this perpetual succession, this unforfeited inhcritance, is sufficicntly remarkable to attract our attention and excite our reverence. It approves itself fo us as providential, and enlivens our hope and trust, that an ordinance, thus graciously protected for so many hundred yea.rs, vill continue unto the end, and that "the gares of hell shall hot prevail against it." I sha.ll now bring these remarks to an end. And in ending, let mc remind you, my brethrcn, how nearly the wholc doctrine of ecclesiastical order is connected with person,l obedience to God's will. Obedience to the rule of order is evcry where enjoined in Scripture; obedience fo it is an act of faith. Were there ten thousand objections to it, yet, supposing, unity were clearly and expressly enjoined by Christ, faith would obey in spire of

The UdO, of thc C/«rch. 4  them. lqut in marrer oç fic t.here are no such olicct.ions, nor any difleulty of a.ny moment in lhe woE" of obscrving. if,. What, fleu, is te» be said fo t.he ve T serious cireumstance t.hat, in spire of the absence «f sueh impediment.s, vas numbers of men eoneeive th«tt they may dispense wil.h i a lheir ood pleasure. In ail he eontroversies of fifteen hundred years, the dui.y of coninuiug in order and it quieluess was professed on all sides, as oue of the llrs principles of the Gospel of Christ. Bu now mulIitndes, both in nnd wiI.hou the Church, have se i up on higqa as a reat diseoveT, and 1o T in i as a great principle, tha t»rms are worh uothin. Ther allow t.hemselves to wander abou ff'oto one communion fo anoher, or ri'oto chureh fo meeting-house, and make i a boas tha. they hd,ng fo no pn.ry and are above all parties; and mue, lha provided men aree in some principal doctrines of the Gospel, i matters little whether hey agree in auy thin beides. Bu those vho boas of beloning fo no pary, a.nd hink themselves enlig'htened in this same confident boasing, I would, in all charily, remind ha out Saviour Hilnself constit.uted wha they mus, on their prineiples, admi fo be a. part.y; tha he Christian Church is simply mad lierally a party or socieçv insti- ud by Christ. Ho bade us keep og'eher. Fellowshi 1) with eaeh other, muhml sympathy, and what spectators fi'om without call party-spirit., all this is a prescribed dut.y; and the sin and the mischief arisc, [iI] 

4OE The Uzity of the Church. hot ri-Oto havin a pa.rty, but in having" many parties, in separating" ri'oto that one body or party whieh He bas • qppointed; for when men si)lit the one Chureh of Christ into frag'ments, they are doing" their part fo destroy if altogether. Bnt while the Chureh of Christ is Iiterally what lhe world calls a party, if is something" far highcr also. is hot an institution of man, hot a mere political eslablishment, hot a crcaturc of the state, depcndin on the state's bl'ealh, madc and unmade af ifs will, but if is a Divine socicty, a grcat work of God, a truc relic of Christ and llis Apostlcs, s Elijah's mantle npon Elisha, a bequest vhieh IIe has left us, and which we must keep for IIis sakc; a holv treasurc which, like the ark of ]sracl, looks like a thing of earth, and is exposed fo the ill-us;gc and eontempt of thc world, but which in ifs own time, and cording fo thc decree of Him'who gave if, displays to-day, and to-morrow, and the third • day, ils miracles, as of mercy so of judg'ment, "lightning's, and voices, and thundcrings, and an earthquake, and grcat hall."