The Unity of the Church.
James Dodson
[from The Evangelical Witness, Vol. 1. No. IV. November, 1822, p. 145-154.]
That the church of God has suffered much from division has been a fact admitted and deplored by all ages. It has formed one of the leading offences in true religion, one of the most painful subjects of grief and anxiety to the pious, and suggested many projects as a remedy, which, not being founded in truth and righteousness, have usually terminated in enlarging the evil. A circumstance of such frequent occurrence, of such long duration, and extending so far as it does in the present day, when the endless number of Christian sects presents a frightful mass of confusion although they dwell together in considerable peace, must be calculated to disturb the pious with a doubt whether the long sought unity really exists. An attempt to shew, therefore, that such unity does exist, and to explain in what it consists, may be useful at once to encourage and direct the friends of truth in their expectations and their efforts relating to this important object. Such an attempt is the object of this essay.
1. The church of God is one in fact, and incapable from her constitution of admitting distinct, divided, and independent, ecclesiastical establishments. The first evidence we shall offer is the nature of the first promise given to fallen man in the garden of Eden.[Gen. iii.] This was a promise of eternal life through a Redeemer from the power of Satan and from eternal death to which man had become liable by sin, and was connected by ordinances of divine worship significant of the promised redemption, and a seal to the promise itself. This we consider the primary and original constitution of the visible church in this world. It has every mark of unity, one promise, concerning one Redeemer, exhibiting “one faith and one hope of the calling” of saved men, and was perfectly adapted to bind together, in one society, all the human family who should afterwards worship God up on the footing of that promise, and in obedience to his own institutions. No ingenuity, we apprehend, can make it appear that after the exhibition of that promise it could have been considered a lawful attempt to set up different and independent associations of the human family for the worship of God. The nature of the glorious object of worship himself, the one and only true God subsisting in three coequal persons, sustaining their respective offices in the accomplishment of the promised redemption, the nature of the promise, and of the redemption it revealed, must have perpetually frowned upon such an undertaking. Many branches, indeed, of the human family were successively rent from the society thus constituted; but the history of that age, brief as it is, not obscurely shews that separations originated in sin and issued in wide spread impiety and violence, while there was exhibited in the righteous descendants of Adam through Seth, Enoch, and others, to Noah, and a practicable illustration of the visible union of the faithful adhering to the original promise and worship of God. The church was then one.
The next evidence we offer is the nature of the covenant given to Abraham. The gross imagination that that covenant related only, or even primarily, to earthly or temporal enjoyments is scarcely deserving of notice. While it did secure to all that believed, a title to those temporal comforts to which, by the sin of Adam, all claim had been forfeited by the human family, our Lord teaches us what it principally exhibited to the faith of Abraham, when he refutes the Sadducees, and explains the promise it contains to be a promise of eternal life, consisting in the immediate felicity of the soul in the enjoyment of God at the moment of death and at the resurrection of the body in glory at the last day:[Matth. xxii. 29—32.] and the apostle Paul when he shews that the token of that covenant was “a seal of the righteousness of faith by which believers are justified and made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”[Rom. iv. 11. Titus ii. 2. iii. 7.] It was evidently, therefore, not a constitution entirely new, but a re-exhibition of the first promise, and demonstrated the essential identity of the faith of Abraham, Enoch, Abel, and Adam. I need not stay to point out how distinctly the great feature for which we are here contending, the unity of the church, was pourtrayed in this covenant. As it disclosed more fully the gracious relation which God sustained to his people, as it made express provision for gathering them together into one society, as it pointed out more distinctly the person of the one and only Redeemer, so the number of the righteous, and the light of divine truth, gradually but rapidly decreasing everywhere else, this covenant was remarkable in its effect in holding up ever after, until the appearance of the Messiah, the visible church in her organized form as truly and only one.
The introduction of the New Testament dispensation (to which we proceed for the only additional evidence we shall offer) was distinctly marked by the entire preservation of whatever was essential in the covenant with Abraham. Great talents, indeed, have been exerted to set aside this all important fact. But the apostle Paul conclusively shews [Gal. iii. 17. 29.] that as the giving of “the law which was four hundred and thirty years after could not disannul the covenant that it should make the promise of none effect,” so its removal, or abrogation, could not; and he assures believers that “if they be Christ’s then are they Abraham’s seed and heirs of the promise.” Upon this same foundation then, the splendid and shadowy ordinances of the Mosaic dispensation being set aside by the appearance of him who is their substance, was erected the New Testament dispensation of the very same covenant promise which had been given to our first parents, and which was afterwards enlarged to Abraham, and is now ratified by the blood of the great, perfect and only atonement. “Shiloh was come and to him must the gathering of the people be;”[Gen. xlix. 10.] whilst the basis of the Abrahamic covenant, preserved through this great and stupendous change, shews conclusively the perpetuated unity of the church. Both the doctrine and the facts of the New Testament writings present this principle in the strongest and most splendid light. “By One spirit are we all baptised into one body”—“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 Lord and Father of all,”—“one building, fitly framed together, one foundation, growing into an holy temple in the Lord.”[1 Cor. xii. 18. Eph, ii. 20. 21. iv. 4—6.] Whatever discussions arose were too plainly marked with sin to admit the idea of any sanction in the constitution of God, and whilst different churches were engrafted from various parts of the world into the good olive tree, whose roots were planted in Jerusalem, local distinction made no division in the body of Christ. There was every practical demonstration that they were one. The Gentile churches suffering the same things from their countrymen that the Jewish did from their’s—the charitable communications from the converted heathen to the poor Christians of Judea, and the obedient subjection of the Gentile churches to the “decrees” of the synod at Jerusalem, [1 Thess. ii. 14. Rom. xv. 26. Acts xv. and xvi. 4.] are all incontrovertible demonstrations of a real and visible unity in the church of God, under her only and glorious head.
2. We proceed to shew in what that unity consists. That it does consist in something besides the mere association of any number of the human family, for the worship of God, is evident. The question is what this is? That the question is a weighty one we are sensible. But adopting the word of God as our guide, which is “a light to our feet, and a lamp to our path,” we hope to exhibit to the friends of truth a satisfactory reply. We place this unity in the faith, government, and worship which God has revealed and prescribed to his church, in the holy scriptures.
1. The faith of the church of God. This is sometimes called “the faith of God’s elect,” sometimes “the doctrine which is according to godliness.”[Titus i. 1. 1 Tim. vi. 3.] That there is a system of doctrine revealed in the word of God of essential importance to the salvation of men, is a point on which all who have reverence for the truth are agreed. But in what this consists, and how far it is carried, the agreement is not so full. It is plain, however, that the possession of this truth in the understanding and in the heart, distinguishes the living members of the body of Christ, from the dead in sin: and that the confession of this truth, distinguishes the visible church from the world which lieth in wickedness. “This is eternal life that they might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” “The church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth.” “Ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.”[John xvii. 3. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Phil. ii. 15. 16.] Such passages place in a strong light the importance of this faith, since it is through the medium of this that men come to the saving knowledge of God, and the preservation and exhibition of it in its purity is there represented to be one great end of the constitution of the church in this world. To this end have been directed the numerous symbols of Christian doctrine, compiled with much labour, amidst much danger, and often sealed as “confessions of faith” in name and in fact, with the blood of the saints. To this end have been devoted the labours of Christian writers, who in various ages have “contended for the faith once delivered to the saints.” Such considerations place in a very unfavorable light the disposition to confine this faith to a few common topics, on which all professing Christians may be agreed; it frustrates by disguising or laying aside the truth, the great designs of the church in the world, and is pernicious to the souls of men. The limited nature of our present object, will not allow us to enumerate even the leading principles of this faith. While we are willing to admit that some truths are of more importance to the glory of God in the church, and to the salvation of men, than others; we prefer the safe and truly Catholic ground, that it comprehends all that God has revealed in his word concerning himself, and his government of the universe, that thus the entire “light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, may shine unto us.”[1 Cor. iv. 6.]—and that nothing there revealed is to be rejected without peril. “He that believeth not God hath made him a liar.”[1 John v. 10.] This faith is one, of how many parts soever it may be composed, and truth is but one system, of how many members soever it consist. Hence the Scriptures always speak of “the truth,” and expressly assures us there is but “one faith.”
2. The government of the church. That every human society must have a settled discipline, laws, and officers for its government, it is folly and madness to deny. No Christian can doubt the necessity of this principle in the organization of the church of God, nor can it be reasonably doubted, that a matter of such indispensable importance, is determined in that record which is declared to be the foundation on which the church is built.[Eph. ii. 20.] The most important practical consequences are connected with it, and express assertions of Scripture point out the only source from which correct views respecting the government of the church are to be derived. “Obey them that have the rule over you.”[Heb. xiii. 17.] Whatever plea that may be offered by those who urge “submission to the powers that be;” this “rule” can only be derived from the Lord Jesus Christ the head, can only be regulated in its nature and exercise by his word, and if we will stand fast in the liberty wherewith he hath made us free, should be scrupulously traced to its source, and settled by his word. Express assertions of Scripture point this out. “God hath set some in the church;”[1 Cor. xii. 28.] not left it to the inclinations or devices of men. The teachers and officers in the church, are the ascension gifts of Zion’s victorious Redeemer and the eternal means through which his presence dwells in Zion—Ephesians iv. 10, 11. This government is the great expression of his kingly office, and the visible display of his majesty in the church. “The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever.”[Luke i. 32.] The ancient church has often been called “a theocracy,” because of the supposed more immediate government of God. But they who are sensible of the divine majesty of Jesus Christ, will perceive that it is more strictly applicable to the church, under the New Testament dispensation, in which he who is “God with us,” reigns in his own throne, over his own kingdom, more immediately, sensibly and gloriously. “Christ is the son over his own house.” Influenced by such views, the advocates of Presbyterian church government, have always appealed to the law and the testimony, as the only rule by which the “church is subject unto Christ.” This government is one and unalterable, and in its application and exercise, evidently consists, in part, the unity of the church.
3. The worship of God in which the church solemnly and collectively adores the Lord her God according to his will. “Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name.” “He is thy Lord, and worship thou him.” While the duty, therefore, is of a most solemn nature, what inexpressibly enhances its importance is, that no worship as well as no worshippers, can be accepted but through the blood of the great sacrifice. This was pointed out in the sprinkling with the blood of the ancient victims, not only the people, but “the tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry.”[Heb. ix. 19-21.] This circumstance points out not only the necessity of faith and devotion in the worshipper, but exactness in the nature of the worship. Who does not see the folly and profanity of attempting to sprinkle the idolatrous altar of Ahaz,[2 Kings xvi. 10-18.] with the blood of the sacrifices, instituted by the God of Israel? We are correctly taught that “the second commandment requireth, the receiving, observing and keeping, pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word.”—and that it “forbids the worshipping of God by images, or in any other way not appointed in his word.” In evidence and illustration of the importance of the truth on this subject, we should remember, that the first of human blood which was shed in this world, was evidently shed from an adherence to the purity of the worship of God, and one of the greatest rents which ever took place in the visible church, was effected and maintained through the violation of his worship, by the calves which Jeroboam erected at Dan and Bethel.[Gen. iv. 1 Kings xiii.] It cannot, therefore, be considered in any other light, than in its purity, a distinctive mark of the true church, and an essential bond of her unity. This worship embodied and prescribed by the revealed will of the head of the church, is but one, surrounded on all sides by the prohibitions and requisitions of his word; it is subject to no change from the lapse of time, or the local transitions of the church, into different parts of the world. God is the same in all places, and in all ages. “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” “Go, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”
In these, we apprehend, the intelligent Christian will perceive the very existence of the church. Where the faith, government, and worship which God has revealed and prescribed in his word are all, and entirely wanting, there nothing of the church is to be seen. In proportion as these exist, is the claim to the name of the true church of God. But it must also be seen, that as in these consists the unity of the church; so from their nature, the violation of them is a violation of that unity. To this source, may be traced, springing from various motives which have actuated the human mind, to this source may be traced the various separations and divisions which have arisen in the Christian world. Substituting human dogmas, for the doctrines of the word of God, and impairing the perfection and beauty of the “faith of God’s elect”—disturbing the order of the scriptural government of the church, and introducing the inventions of men, in place of the ordinance of God. This is not said for reproach. It states the ordinary fact. A serious and impartial view of those facts, to which, we have referred for evidence of the real unity of the church, and the inspired history connected with them, will shew that such is the case. But while we are called to behold a long train of disappointed efforts in the restoration of Zion to her glory and beauty—and a long train of too successful efforts in her enemies, and them that hate her; the friends of truth in contemplating the actual constitution of God’s church, which must ultimately prevail over every opposition, in the unity of the church, are assured that that unity will yet arrive, and in the nature of that unity, are counselled to what points, there labours for its accomplishment are to be directed. The truth, the law, and the worship of God in their purity, constitute the only grounds of a permanent union—and it is when these shall be displayed in their glory, that the name of the Lord shall be one, and his praise one, throughout the world.
C.