Brethren Archive

American Darby Letterbook - Page: 41


Transcript:


of God is holy, which temple ye are.” It is a most painful question to ask, but yet it must be asked, Can the church of England abide the appropriation to her of these Scriptural principles? Has she not set herself in the place of the “one body” denouncing as schismatics those who separate from her rather than Christ? Does she not at the same time assume to herself the right of decreeing ceremonies & imposing them on her members & that as terms of communion? Thereby casting many of Christ’s flock out of her fold & becoming herself schismatic, rending the Body of Christ. To our minds these questions admit but of one answer.

2) Another point is the exercise of discipline within the Church. Our Lord’s words in Matthew 18:15-17 are very clear, & yet, upon the principles of the Establishment, impossible to be obeyed. Again the Apostle 2 Cor. 6:14-18, warns us of unequal yoking of the Church, the Temple of God with unbelievers, and bids us come out & be separate from such, as the condition of acknowlegement by the Lord as sons & daughters. Indeed, the word is everywhere plain with regard to this. But can the Church of England abide the test in this case more than the other? Is it not the lamentation of her defenders that discipline cannot be rightly exercised in her heterogeneous assemblies?






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