that they are bound by their Christian profession, not only in their civil, but also in their religious capacity, to "follow after "the things which make for peace'?” y Rom. xiv. 19. SERMON II. 1 COR. xii. 25. That there should be no schism in the body. THE essential truths of our holy religion are so decidedly enforced, so variously and so repeatedly pressed on the attention, that the unprejudiced and inexperienced reader of the sacred volume would be disposed to conclude that no blindness could overlook, no perverseness misapprehend them. This is conspicuously the case in all that relates to the unity of the Church of Christ, and the guilt attendant on its violation. Presented to us under every variety of form, in the illustrations of metaphor, in the precision of express precept, and the encouragements of example, it is interwoven with the very texture of holy writ. Whence comes it to pass then, with respect to so numerous a body of professing Christians, that, on these points at least, "seeing they "cannot see, and hearing they cannot un"derstand a;" that they are become utterly insensible to the sin of schism, the actual crime of separation from a branch of the Christian Church, correct in its constitution, and pure in its doctrine? I. That this ignorance of their duty can arise from no defect in the information to be derived on this subject from the sacred Scriptures, is capable of the most extensive demonstration. Every notice which we have of the Church of Christ, every image under which it is introduced to us, implies indivisible unity, and leads us to consider Christians not as isolated and unconnected individuals, but as persons closely incorporated in that sacred association. They are "one fold under one Shepherd ";" they are "a building fitly framed together, Jesus "Christ himself being the chief corner "stone";" they are members of "one" mystical "body"," of which Christ is the head; and "by one Spirit they are all baptized "into one body;" there is accordingly a Luke viii. 10. C * Eph. ii. 20, 21. b John x. 16. d 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. "one hope of their calling, one Lord, one "faith, one baptism, one God and Father " of all "." But the scriptural representations of the Church not only lead us to infer its unity, but that order also, and regularity, and subordination, without which its unity could never have been preserved. It is "a king"dom," of which Christ is the King, and the ministers of the Gospel are his "am"bassadors ";" it is "the city of the living 66 Godh," and Christians "fellow-citizens "with the saints." They are also the "household of God;" Christ himself is "the Master'" of that sacred family, and his ministers are "stewards of the manifold grace of God"." Moreover, the several officers on whom it was to depend to govern this Church, were the appointment of Christ himself: "And he gave some, "apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors " and teachers; for the perfecting of the 66 e Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6. f Matt. xvi. 28. g 2 Cor. v. 20. k Ibid. |