the concord of the holy, while the union of Satan and his host is the conspiracy of the damned. It is not mere union, but the principles and grounds of it, that entitle it to respect or reverence. In truth, uniformity is the expression of the union of the Church of Rome, rather than unity; and it is produced by one of two causesignorance or compression. The first cause is ignorance. The Greeks and Romans were united in the worship of idols before they became Christians, the Ephesians were united in the worship of Diana, and the Jews were perfectly agreed in crying, with simultaneous accents, "Crucify him, crucify him;" but the moment that light shone amid the Ephesians, they were disunited, a party following Christ, and a party following Diana; the moment that the gospel sounded upon the banks of the Tiber, and in the groves of Ilissus, that moment Greek and Roman were divided on the worship of their idols. Light dissolves the union that is produced in ignorance; as in the gigantic iceberg, a collection of all heterogenous elements, which is dissolved when the sunbeams of heaven rest upon it, and its waters flow one way, and its chaff, and hay, and stubble, are driven another way by the winds. And, secondly, the uniformity in the Church of Rome is produced by compression. In Spain, all are perfectly united, but it is the union of the dead; the people that live upon the earth above, being scarcely better than those who slumber in the graves below. And, if mere compression or compulsion be all that is required to unity, Botany Bay must be the most glorious colony appended to the British dominions, for there it exists in perfection; and, on this ground, thirty-nine bayonets would be a more powerful guarantee for union than thirtynine Articles, and Newgate more renowned for it than Surrey Chapel. But, this is not the unity for which we contend. We seek the unity of minds enlightened by the truth, the unity of hearts impressed by the truth; but the unity of the Church of Rome is the unity of "unclean birds," kept together by a force ab extra, and not by internal attraction. The hands are united, but the hearts are at antipodes. The fear of Purgatory, and the penalties of the Church, guarantee a semblance of unity; but it is not real. On the contrary, it is a place, to use the language of Milton, - "Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds Abominable, unutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, Mine be the rolling waves of the ocean, rather than the purifying Dead Sea; mine be the roaring cataract, rather than the stagnant marsh; mine be all the excitement of living truth, rather than the quiescence of pestilential error. "A living dog is better than a dead lion." And here I must state, that I do not think it was ever the mind of God that there should be perfect uniformity in the visible Church of Christ. I am attached to my own Church, and (I will use the expression) most enthusiastically; but I should deplore the day when all England's Christians should become Presbyterians; and I should equally deplore the day when they should all become Episcopalians. I believe it to be God's ordinance, that while there is only one ark, there should be different chambers in it; that there should be branches differing in outward peculiarity, while there is only one living vine, and one pervading sap. There is one living Catholic Church, but there may be many outward manifestations and developments of it, in its contact with the world. And it is by this very process, that the whole catholic truth of God is preserved. You will always find, that one communion holds in solution a truth overlooked by its neighbour, and that neighbour a truth overlooked by another; and it is by these diversities of outward constitution, that all the truths of Christianity are held prominent and distinct. If all men were advocates of an Establishment, voluntary liberality would be repressed; if all men were advocates of the voluntary system, the duties and responsibilities of nations would be overlooked. In presbytery, we have retained the presbyter, but lost the oversight of the bishop; in episcopacy, they have retained the bishop's superintendance, but lost the presbyter; in independency, you have retained the power of the people, though you may have lost (if you will permit me to say so) what I coneeive to be necessary for the unity and government of the Church-the superintendance of the bishop or presbytery. But thus it happens, that one party preserves that which the other has lost sight of; and thus take the whole Catholic Church of Christ, and all the truths of the gospel are developed, manifested, and maintained. Again I allege, that it is not God's ordinance that there should be uniformity in nature, and that this is indicative of his mind with regard to the Church. Look to the firmament above; you cannot count its thousands of stars, and "one star differeth from another star in glory;" God might have made them alike, but he has not done so. View the whole earth in the season of spring or of summer; one flower is a rose, another is a violet, another a lily; there is the same generic law for the whole vegetable creation, but the specific developments of it are distinct and diversified. Search into the bowels of the earth; the minerals are essentially the same, but their crystalisation varied and diversified, though all under one law. Look upon this vast assembly; each face is a human face, and yet there are not two countenances alike. Uniformity would be a blemish; diversity is a beauty. And I allege, that to seek uniformity in the Church of Christ is to seek a violation of the laws of God. To advocate unity at heart, amidst diversity of manifestation, is to join in the prayer of our blessed Lord, "That they all may be ONE." 66 We have, in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, a perfect specimen of the unity of the Protestant Church : one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." I once was arguing with a Roman Catholic, and I put the question to the whole assembly, if that was their Church. I asked the Baptists, and they answered, Yes;' I asked the Independents, and they answered, 'Yes;' I asked the Episcopalians, and they answered, 'Yes.' We have, then, in our only rule of faith, the Bible, the sevenfold unity which is characteristic of the true Church; and Protestants, however different in name, are essentially one in truth. In the Church of Rome, they will forgive you every error if you only cling to the chair of St. Peter; in the Protestant Church, we forgive you every circumstantial difference if you only cleave to Christ. The points of diversity are, Christ and antichrist. In the Church of Rome, they pardon all, if you will only look to the Pope; in the Protestant Church, we forgive all circumstantial diversities, on condition that all rejoice in "beholding the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." Let me now draw my remarks to a close, by giving some advice to Protestants upon this subject. And first, let our common faith be written as with a dimond's point upon the living rock; let our diversities in regimen and ecclesiastical discipline be written as upon the shifting sand. Break to pieces Satan's microscope, which magnifies the points of divergence; use God's telescope, which brings within the horizon of your view the glories, in the magnificence of which, all our contrarieties and shades of sentiment are merged and lost. The things in which we agree, are majestic as the attributes of God, and enduring as the eternity to which they point ; the things in which we differ are trivial, and it needs an uncharitable microscope to magnify and discover them. The points in which we differ, are like chaff in comparison with the wheat; the doctrines in which we agree, are precious and weighty as the virgin gold. Our Lord's constant injunction is, "A new commandment give I unto you, that love one another; ye ""let brotherly love continue." And all this I will sum up in that beautiful sentiment-" In essential things unity, in doubtful things liberty, in all things charity." Again: let me urge union and communion among all true Christians, on the ground of our near and dear relationship. We are fellow soldiers, fellow travellers, fellow voyagers. "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between thy herdmen and my herdmen; for we be brethren." It is our solemn duty to cultivate this union. We are only insuperable, whilst we are inseparable. Remember the bundle of arrows; united, incapable of being broken; disunited, severed easily into pieces. To enforce and illustrate this advice, let me call upon all true Christians to look less at the defects by which their brethren are marked, and more at the beauties by which they are distinguished. When I look at the independent Dissenters, I will forget any that have exceeded the bounds of charity, and think of a Moffatt, of a Williams, of a Jay,—and were I not in this pulpit, I would add another name. When you look at the Church of Scotland, forget its fierce and headstrong spirits, who have reflected no honour upon it; and think of its Chalmerses, its Duffs, and its Muirs. And when we both look at the Church of England, let us forget its Newmans, its Puseys, and its Hooks, and think of its Noels, its M'Neiles, its Bickersteths, its Sumners, and its devoted bishops, who, in past ages, have shed a halo and a glory upon it. Act the part of the painter, who was called upon to sketch Alexander the Great. Alexander had a scar upon his forehead, which he had received in the course of his Macedonian battles, and the painter was perplexed to find a way by which to escape showing this deformity on the portrait; at last he hit upon the happy expedient of representing the monarch sitting in his chair, his head leaning upon his right arm, and the fore finger covering the scar upon his brow. When I sketch the Independent communion, I would put my finger upon the scar, by which it may be deformed; when you sketch the Church of Scotland, lay the finger of charity upon the scarby which she is defaced; when we sketch the Church of England, let us put our finger over the scar, which I fear is growing in breadth and deformity upon her; and I would say the same of the Church of Rome, only she is all scar-there is no soundness in her at all. This is God's way of treating us, and it ought to be our way of treating one another. When Rahab is referred to in Scripture, Rahab's lie is not mentioned, but Rahab's faith is spoken of. When Job is referred to, his fretfulness is forgotten, and his patience is canonised. When David is mentioned, David's sin is not spoken of, but David's grace is remembered. And if we had only love in our hearts, depend upon it, there would be greater charity in our sketches of one another. Love is the ten commandments kept in a monosyllable, just as sin is the ten commandments broken in a monosyllable. And if we could only believe it, we are really and truly one. I do not ask any one to break down his ecclesiastical polity; I do not ask any one to violate the laws he has subscribed; but I ask you, in every holy and Christian work to feel, that whatever the colour of the robes in which your ministers preach, or the forms in which you worship, you are, if God's children, essentially and truly one. a quantity of quicksilver, and throw it upon the earth, and it breaks into a thousand globules; why? because of the unevenness of the earth's surface. But the affinities of the quicksilver are not destroyed; have a little care, use a little gentleness, collect the globules, and they will unite into a bright mass, reflecting your countenance as you behold it. So with Christians. It is earth, that originates the contrarieties; it is sin, that severs; a little charity might soon collect them into one common mass, reflecting the glory of their common God, the righteousness of their common Saviour, and the splendour of their everlasting home. Take Finally, to maintain the unity of the Protestant Church, let us live nearer to Christ, that we may live nearer to one another. You know, that in a circumference or hoop, if there are a number of radii or lines proceeding from the circumference towards the centre, as each line approaches the centre it comes nearer to its neighbour. So, in the gospel: Christ is the great centre, we are converts from the circumference of the wide world, and the nearer we come to Christ the nearer we come to one another. And, it is when we are absorbed and meet in Christ, that" Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim." And now, if there be in this assembly any Roman Catholic, (and I know that on the past occasions there have been many,) let me adjure him to burst the withs of Church and priesthood, by which he is bound, and to come forth into the liberty, wherewith Christ makes his people free. Let me tell you of the true Purgatory-the blood of Jesus Christ that "cleanseth from all sin;" let me tell you of the only Saviour-Jesus Christ and him crucified. Belong you to the Romish Church, or belong you to the Protestant, if you look away from Mary, and from saints and angels, and look by faith to the Son of God alone, you shall never come into condemnation. May the apostolical succession sink more and more; may apostolical doctrine spread more and more. May the uniformity of Rome be scattered and broken, as by a thunder-peal; may the unity of the Church of the living God reign and spread on earth, till it is lost in the glory of the Church triumphant in heaven. LECTURE IV. THE FATHERS NOT SAFE EXPOSITORS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AND THE NICENE CHURCH, NOT THE RIGHT MODEL : "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."-Colossians ii. 8. I have selected the text which I have now read, as embodying, in some measure, the spirit of the statements which I am about to submit. And I shall have, this evening, to tax your patience to its very utmost, and to draw upon your indulgence to no ordinary extent; because, what I shall adduce, will be less of argument, or illustration, and more of dry, but important and authentic documents, proving, by bare and stern facts, the principles I am anxious to inculcate. It has been announced to you, that the two topics before us, this evening, for discussion, are-The Fathers, and the Nicene Church. It will require some preliminary explanation to make you clearly understand what these are. I can conceive, that "Nicene Church," and " Fathers," and all the other high-sounding terms to which modern controversy has been obliged to have recourse, must sound as something approaching an unknown tongue in the ears of Bible-taught and evangelical Christians. But these words, I assure you, play a most conspicuous part in the present day; and it is most important, nay, I hold it under God almost essential to your protection from poisonous, deadly, and deleterious tenets, that you should fairly understand them, and be able fully and firmly to repel the deductions that are too frequently made from them. By the Fathers, is meant certain divines, who flourished in (to take the longest range) the first five centuries of the Christian Church. Some of these were distinguished for their genius, some for their eloquence, a few for their piety, and too many for their fanaticism and superstition. It is recorded by Dr. Delahogue, who was professor in the royal Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, on the authority of Eusebius, that the fathers who were really most fitted to be the luminaries of the age in which they lived, were too busy in preparing their flocks for martyrdom, to commit anything to writing; and, therefore, by the admission of this Roman Catholic divine, we have not the full and fair exponent of the views of all the fathers of the first five centuries, but only of those who were most ambitious of literary distinction, and least attentive to their charges. It is the fact in the present day, that the minister who has a large congregation, and much to do in it, has very little time for writing elaborate treatises upon any of the controversies of the age, or even for publishing sermons. It was so then; the most devoted and pious of the fathers were busy |