THE COMPREHENSIVE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. No Christian union without ccclesiastical unity-a Comprehensive Church apparently impracticable-desired by all-one to be proposed in this volume-principles of unity in the apostolical and primitive Church— Roman Catholic and Protestant non-Episcopal Churches all consolidated, not comprehensive-ought to return to primitive principles-a bad habit of the public mind-the true idea of a Church. THE little work here addressed to the Christian public proposes a plan of union to the various denominations of Christians in our country. The writer is convinced that Christian union can never be effected except upon some plan of ecclesiastical unity-some system of a Church broad enough to allow all sincere and humble-hearted disciples of our Lord to unite upon it-a comprehensive system, which shall combine naturally and harmoniously the chief peculiarities of the various denominations in our land. At first sight it seems impossible that a model of a Church can be proposed which shall bring together into one the systems which now conflict-the very "distinctive peculiarities" which have hitherto sepa rated sects. If, however, a model like this referred to can be found, it will commend itself, of course, to the consideration and approval of all Christian people; for we are fain to believe that none are desirous to perpetuate the unhappy dissensions of the religious community, and all would be glad to further any plan which warrants a reasonable expectation of unity. Such a model will, in due time, be proposed in this volume. The grand principles upon which the apostolical and primitive Church was organized seem to have been all embodied in that familiar but noble maxim: "In necessariis unitas; in non necessariis libertas; in omnibus caritas"—unity in essentials; liberty in non-essentials; love in everything. As far as we can learn from the history of the New Testament, and from the topics discussed in the writings of the earliest fathers, and from the few historical records of the first centuries, this maxim appears to have been very fully and beautifully illustrated. But the desire of power so natural to man began directly to manifest itself, and the principles embodied in that maxim were soon departed from; and the long history of the Christian Church, from a very early period, has proved the folly and the danger of leaving the true principles of its organization. From that period to the present there has been a valuable lesson taught to them who will receive it. Would that the lesson may be profitably learned! It is, that there must be a unity in the Christian Church, and this must be unity in essentials; and that to attempt to go beyond this, and accomplish unity in non-essentials, is inevitably to destroy the purity and the glory of the Church, and to introduce the most lamentable evils. The lesson has been exemplified most clearly, although differently, in the two great epochs of ecclesiastical history-that which preceded the Protestant Reformation, and that which has followed the Reformation; it has been exemplified first in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, and next in that of Protestant Christendom, as we will briefly elucidate. It is evidently a Scriptural truth that the Church must be "one body," both in respect of its external unity and of its internal unity; and this truth has been acknowledged as a practical and necessary principle by Christians of every name and in every age, the present as well as the past. But the fault, in the case of Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, has been that their idea of unity has been erroneous and excessive; that they all have aimed at too much unity; that in their conceptions they have substituted consolidation for unity; and that, instead of striving to form simply a united Church, they have been continually striving to make a consolidated Church. Thus if the mind of Christendom had always adhered to its first principles, and had never forgotten that, in order to have “unity in essentials," there must always be allowed "liberty in non-essentials," the monstrous and long-continued scheme connected with the Papacy - would never have been originated; or if it had been possibly originated, it could never have been consummated. The whole scheme of the Roman Catholic Church was a legitimate creation, a gradual result, of the false conception of unity. The Roman Catholic. Church was not a united, but a consolidated Church. |