His divinity ; justification by faith without the ne
cessity of good works, or the necessity of good works
without the need of divine grace ; the atonement
without the judgment, or the judgment without the
atonement, although every word spoken might be
true, would be virtually and practically falsehood.
And even where other truths are not altogether
omitted, yet to put in the fore-front of our teaching
truths, which are subordinate or co-ordinate in Scrip
ture ; or by insisting too frequently on one topic to
give it such importance in our hearers minds that it
overlaps and conceals the rest ; is, in its degree, to
mutilate the divine revelation, and, in effect at least,
218 The Dangers to the Clergy
to inculcate or encourage error. We must be careful,
then, while defending a doctrine, not to exaggerate
its relative importance ; nor in the warmth or de
mands of controversy to dwell so exclusively upon it,
as to obscure in our people s conceptions and perhaps
our own, truths equally necessary for our faith and
practice.
Nor are we left without a standard and a guide :
for we cannot but esteem it a peculiar happiness of
our Church, and a cause of thankfulness to Him
who has watched over her, that she has preserved in
her formularies, not only the doctrines of the Gos
pel, but also the Scriptural proportion and analogy of
faith, giving to each truth the prominence given to it
in God s word, and linking them in the mutual de
pendence in which they have been revealed. She
does not, for example, as others have done, lay down
as the foundation of her faith the mysterious doctrines
of predestination and election, which in Scripture are
seldom mentioned but as topics of consolation and
support to the tried and tempted believer ; because
she has marshalled her teaching, not according to
artificial systems of men, but in simple conformity to
the word of God.
If then, to borrow an illustration from the present
times, we should think that the doctrine of holy
baptism has been misunderstood or perverted, and
should feel it our duty to explain or defend it, do not
let us forget, that there are other doctrines as neces-
of a Time of Controversy. 219
sary to salvation and holiness ; and that our Church
has taught at least as dogmatically the truths of the
Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement ; the in
spiration of Holy Scripture, and its sufficiency as the
rule of faith ; original sin, and the infection of na
ture remaining after regeneration in which the guilt
is remitted ; the necessity of both preventing and co
operating grace ; justification, or imputed righteous
ness, not for our own deservings but for the merits of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith only,
apart from works ; the need of good works as the
fruit and evidence of lively faith ; and predestina
tion to life, a doctrine of unspeakable comfort to the
godly. All these, then, no less than the doctrines
of the Church and sacraments, are " the things new
and old " which we are to dispense faithfully and in
due proportion accordingly as every one hath need ;
and we must take heed lest we keep back any of the
counsel of God, if we would be free from the blood of
all men.
Let me add, that to teach any doctrine exclusively?
or to give it undue prominence, has a tendency to
generate errors in the opposite extreme. There is
a reaction from the overstrained statement even of
truth. Points which we have neglected, are per
ceived by others. It becomes their duty to restore
them to their due position. They soon exaggerate
their importance. Opposition makes their defence
warmer, their language stronger, and their opinions
220 The Dangers to the Clergy
more hard, exclusive, and antagonistic. They deny,
at length, the tenets of their opponents, and push
their own beyond the bounds of Scripture ; and what
was at first the rescue of neglected truth, becomes at
last error and even herey. I need not remind you,
how the history of philosophy, as well as of heresies, is
a kind of register of the oscillations of the human
mind, swinging alternately from one extreme to the
other : nor detain you with instances of the ebb and
flow of opinion, w r hich your own memory will readily
supply even from the annals of our own Church.
But let us, taught by experience, " take heed to our
doctrine," lest by the too exclusive teaching of even
important truth we prepare the way for the revival
and reception of opposite error : lest, for instance, by
undue or exaggerated statements of the doctrine of
sacramental grace we should be provoking a speedy
recoil to a miserable rationalism, or the cold, faithless
heresy of Socinus.
2. And this leads me to mention one more danger,
to which our teaching is exposed in times of contro
versy. It is that of neglecting, in our interest in the
questions of the day, the growth of other errors often
more formidable and deadly. While our eyes are
fixed on the contest in front, the enemy is under
mining the walls or attacking the rear. Never surely
was the warning more needed. All know the ques
tions which agitate the Church. The press teems
with them the platform rings with them. They are
of a Time of Controversy. 221
discussed daily, even by those who ought not, and in
tones very unbefitting sacred truth. But is this the
quarter where our people s danger lies ? Is it here
that errors are generating, which are already poison
ing the faith especially of the young ? Can we be
blind to the signs of the times exhibited in the
popular literature of the day ? or disguise from our
selves that the Church must prepare to combat the
resuscitated heresies of the first two centuries, armed
with the science and mental acuteness of the nine
teenth ? The inspiration of Scripture, the origin of
evil, the eternity of punishment, the resurrection of
the body, the personality of the evil spirit, all these
are questions on which the minds of men are at work,
and on which opinions the most pernicious to Chris
tianity, and indeed to natural religion, are festering
in the bosom of society. Add to this a growing
rationalistic spirit with its self-conceited criticism,
erecting the individual feeling and judgment, the I
myself, into the standard of right and wrong, truth
and falsehood, and thus reaching by a widely differing
road the ultimate conclusions of mysticism ; and the
difficulties which the results of modern science are
supposed and taught to have raised to revelation, and
which, where they have not led to infidelity, have in
duced a wide-spread sentiment, that there are many
things in the Bible w^hich need not be believed, and
have consequently furnished a ready plea for rejecting
or passing over whatever is distasteful to the pride of
222 Tie Dangers to the Clergy
intellect or the erriug will. Xor can we forget the
less dangerous, perhaps, because more daring, efforts
of the Roman Church, now elated to new hope by
the faithlessness, alas ! or the weakness of some from
among ourselves ; and who has at length ventured to
assume again a long-lost authority, the exercise of
which involves the denial, on Rome s principles, and
indeed on our own, of the existence of our Episcopacy,
the validity of our orders, and the efficacy of our
sacraments.
These are " erroneous and strange doctrines con
trary to God s word" which are rapidly rising around
us, and which we are vowed "with all faithful diligence
to banish and drive away." Let us " take heed," then,
" to ourselves and unto the doctrine ;" and be pre
pared to guard on all sides the flock committed to our
charge.
And that we may do so, oh let us pray more
earnestly, and endeavour more sincerely, to be at
peace among ourselves. Let us not exaggerate dif
ferences, impute motives, or multiply parties ; but
rather let us rejoice to agree in great points, and
agree to differ in less. Let not verbal disputes be
come real divisions ; nor let us charge each other
with disowning doctrines, which we alike profess.
Rather let us " believe all things, hope all things,
endure all things." 1 "When the enemy surrounds the
camp, disunion is treason ; union alone is safety.
1 1 Cor. xiii. 7.
of a Time of Controversy. 223
One in heart, and one in effort, we shall soon find
ourselves one in sentiment : and a united band of
brethren, fighting under Christ s own banner, we are
secure of the victory through the might of our own
great Head, the Captain of our salvation.
THE END.
G. NORMAN & SON, Printers, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden.
COLLEGE
i/BRAB