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AN ESSAY

AND CONCLUDING ADDRESS

BY

THE EDITOR.

THE separation referred to and deplored in the preceding letters, is not a new thing in the church: a root of bitterness has often sprung up, whereby many have been defiled, (Heb. xii. 15;) and the Apostle Paul found it necessary in the very first age of Christianity to charge the Corinthians with being carnal, on account of the envying, strife, and divisions that existed among them. (1 Cor. iii. 3.) "There is nothing new under the sun." (Eccles. i. 9.) What has happened will happen-the law in the members will continue to war against the law of the mind and fallen man, even in his regenerated state, will still exhibit sad proof, that he needs the great and glorious change which will take place when "the dead shall be raised "incorruptible." (1 Cor. xv. 52.)

It is not easy for a man to ascertain the nature of the spirit that influences him-self-love dwells

*There is a spirit of dissent, as well as a spirit of Christianity. The points of difference become the life of the non-con'formists' theology. When those points relate to doctrine, men are too prone to forget what Warburton has remarked concern

within-preys upon his very vitals-blinds his judgment-deceives his imagination-destroys his reasoning powers-puffs him with pride-and leads him in too many instances to "call evil, good—and good, "evil---to put darkness for light, and light for darkness---to put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah, v. 20.)

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From this very circumstance the various exhortations that abound in the gospel, derive their force and their application. They are addressed to creatures who bear the evident stamp of fallibility-who have need to be continually reminded that they know nothing yet as they ought to know-and that they should not be high-minded, but fear. There is an awful day of account approaching, when men of every character must stand before the bar of the just and inflexible Judge of heaven and earth, to give an account, not of the opinions, or principles, or

'obscurities in scripture, that "the very obscurities are a suffi❝cient evidence that the subject of them can never be matter of 'faith necessary to salvation ;" and when they relate to discipline, the strictest disciplinarian may well doubt whether any differ'ence is of sufficient moment to counterbalance the inconveniencies of separation. Between the Romish and Reformed 'churches the difference is wide as east and west; they are as 'far as the poles asunder; the points of discrepancy are 'vital; a re-union is as impossible, as it would be to unite with 'the synagogue or the mosque : and the benefits of the Reform♦ation are so great, that, great as is the price which it cost us, 'we are abundantly overpaid. But it is humiliating to recollect 'what has been suffered for no weightier ground in the beginning than the surplice and the sign of the cross in baptism! Schism, 'which originated in no better cause, could have no good ' effect.'-Quarterly Review for October 1813.

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words, or actions of others, but of their own. In that day the unprofitableness of perverse disput'ings'-ofvain jangling,'-of refined distinctions,' of 'subtle reasonings,'-and of plausible and imposing assertions," unsupported by the tenour of the sacred scriptures, will fully appear; their former importance will then dwindle into insignificance and the happiness of the redeemed will be found to arise from having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The love that was so little in exercise on earth, will then be found an invaluable treasure-a treasure possessed by all the glorified inhabitants of heaven, and without which they could feel no delight. The unity which fell a sacrifice to the strife of words, and to the misapplication or perversion of insulated texts, will then appear as the peculiar, striking, and appropriate beauty of the New Jerusalem. The truths of God's word are all written and revealed with a direct reference to eternity; and those things are alone important, which will be accounted valuable, when the shades of time shall disappear, when the blackness of darkness will envelope the impenitent and unbelieving, and when the divine glory will burst upon the astonished view of the redeemed, to beam with increasing brightness, and to communicate delight through endless ages. Humility ought at all times to be the handmaid of our researches, but particularly at a period when novelty seems to be a sufficient recommendation of a system; when forms are discarded, because they have had a long duration, and from that very circumstance

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oftentimes represented as unscriptural; when human learning is disparaged as quite beneath the notice of, and unnecessary to be possessed by, the dis. ciples of our Lord Jesus Christ; and when every novice who chooses to start up, is not only left at liberty, but often encouraged to pass a sentence of acquittal, or of condemnation, upon his brethren, with as much decision, and with as great a consciousness of the rectitude of that decision, as if it were registered in the courts of heaven-as if he were the person commissioned to declare it—and as if it were ratified by the Almighty himself. It has been remarked by an eminent Christian, that if he reached heaven, he expected to observe three wonders: 1st, To find several persons there, who, he thought, would never enter into it; 2d, to find several excluded, of whose entrance he had no doubt

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and, last of all, to find himself there. This is the kind of spirit which is now wanted-a spirit of love towards others a spirit of watchfulness and godly fear over ourselves. Here the servants of God may justly be compared to children-they speak-they think as children; but when they become menwhen they are brought in safety to the heavenly Canaan, and are admitted to eternal fellowship with the Father, Son, and Spirit, then they will put away childish things. If, when they behold the King in his glory, a single unpleasant feeling could arise, it would be from the recollection of the time they spent in unprofitable disputations, and in searching the good word of God, not that they might grow thereby in the knowledge of God, and in the

grace that is in Christ Jesus, but that they might bring another argument to favour their own position, or to subvert that of an adversary *. It is deservedly esteemed a proof of kindness to warn a neighbour against an impending danger, and to devise a method of escape from it: now, inasmuch as the soul is of more value than the body, and spiritual blessings more desirable than temporal, it becomes the bounden duty of every friend to pure and undefiled religion, to reprove, exhort, and rebuke as far as his influence extends and his opportunities. afford. Deeply impressed with this conviction, and deploring the existence of a system of innovation. upon, all constituted authorities in the Christian church, and of a spirit, the sad effect of which is

* You will frequently hear those who cause divisions plead'ing, that men may divide, and yet continue to love one another the same as before, and be of one heart, when they cannot cordially assemble in the same place to worship God. They 'may as well talk of a friendly lawsuit, or a peaceable war. Let 'me just ask, Why do you separate at all? Is it upon a trivial or ' a material point? If the point be of little signification, how unwise to destroy the peace of the church and rend the body of · Christ, to gain what you confess to be of small moment! Should you plead that the point in debate is of weighty concern, then upon what ground can you be very cordial with men, who, in < your opinion, do greatly err? You may indeed pity them at a 'distance; but you cannot well be together in heart, when

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' are so far asunder on material religious points. Whether the ' matters that separate men from each other be great or small, they will necessarily lessen affection, and seldom fail to excite improper tempers. The sword that wounds has no healing ' property.'

Let it be carefully recollected, that nothing but sinful terms

⚫ of communion can justify separation from a church; and that to

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