&c." Augustine adds his testimony to the same doctrine: "Let us hold it as a thing unshaken and firm, that no good men can divide themselves from the church." It is not indeed to be supposed or believed for a moment, that divine grace would permit the really holy and justified members of Christ to fall from the way of life. He would only permit the unsanctified, the enemies of Christ, to sever themselves from that fountain, where his Spirit is given freely. “In the church," says Irenæus, "did God place the apostles, prophets, teachers, and every operation of the Spirit, whereof they are not partakers, who do not run unto the church, but defraud themselves of life by their evil opinions and most wicked deeds; for where the church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there also the Church and every grace exist."

We may therefore conclude, that voluntary separation from the church of Christ is a sin against our brethren, against ourselves, against God; a sin which, unless repented of, is eternally destructive to the soul. The heinous nature of this offence is incapable of

a "Nemo existimet bonos de ecclesia posse discedere. Triticum non rapit ventus, nec arborem solida radice fundatam procella subvertit. Inanes pa leæ tempestate jactantur, invalidæ arbores turbinis incursione evertuntur. Hos execratur et percutit Joannes apostolus dicens," &c.-Cypr. de Unitate, p. 256. ed. Pamel.

b❝Inconcussum firmumque teneamus, nullos bonos ab ea (ecclesia) se posse dividere."—

Adv. Parmenian. lib. iii. c. 5.

"In ecclesia enim, inquit, posuit Deus apostolos, prophetas, doctores, et universam reliquam operationem Spiritus, cujus non sunt participes omnes qui non currunt ad ecclesiam, sed semetipsos fraudant a vita per sententiam malam et operationem pessimam. Ubi enim ecclesia, ibi et Spiritus Dei, et ubi Spiritus Dei, illic ecclesia et omnis gratia."-Adv. Hæres. iii. 24. p. 223.

exaggeration, because no human imagination, and no human tongue can adequately describe its enormity.

2. It is certain that the primitive Christians regarded communion between Christians as a thing absolutely necessary, and viewed those who separated from it, as sinners. "Remain inseparably united to Jesus Christ and your bishop, and the ordinances of the apostles," said the martyr Ignatius: "He who is within the altar is clean; but he who is without, that is without the bishop, and the presbyters, and the deacons, is not clean d " "As children of light and truth, avoid the division of unity, and the evil doctrines of heretics "." Irenæus says: "The spiritual man will also judge those who work divisions; vain men, devoid of the love of God, seeking their own advantage more than the unity of the Church; who for trifling, nay for any causes, rend and divide the great and glorious body of Christ, and, as far as in them lies, slay it; who speak peace, and work warfare; who truly strain at the gnat and swallow the camel; for no improvement can be made by them so great, as is the evil of schism." Cyprian continues the chain of tradition: "Whosoever, divorced from the church, is united to an adulteress, is separated from the church's promises; nor shall that man attain the rewards of Christ, who relinquishes his church. He is a stranger, he is profane, he is an enemy .... He who assembles, except with the church, scatters the church of Christ "."

“An enemy of the

g" Quisquis ab ecclesia segregatus adulteræ jungitur, a promissis ecclesiæ separatur. Nec perveniet ad Christi præmia, qui relinquit ecclesiam Christi. Alienus est: profanus est: hostis est ....Qui alibi præter ecclesiam

altar, a rebel against Christ's sacrifice; as to faith, false; as to religion, sacrilegious; a disobedient servant, an impious son, a hostile brother; contemns the bishops and forsakes the priests of God, dares to constitute another altar, to offer another prayer with unlawful words, to profane the truth of the Lord's oblation by false sacrifices; nor deigns to know, that he who contends against the divine ordinance, is punished for his audacious rashness by the divine judgment Dionysius of Alexandria writes thus to Novatus, who had formed a schism from the church of the Romans : "If, as you say, you were compelled unwillingly (to be ordained head of the new sect) you will prove it by your voluntary return. It were indeed better to have suffered any evil, than to have divided the church of God; nor would martyrdom, for the sake of not dividing, have been less glorious; yea, in my opinion, more so: for, in one case, martyrdom is for the sake of one's own soul; in the other, for the whole church. If even now you will persuade or oblige the brethren to return to concord, your merit will be greater than your offence. The one will not be imputed, the other will be praised. But if they should be disobedient, and you cannot accomplish it, save your own soul." It would fill volumes to transcribe the various arguments of the Fathers against separation from the church. The holy Cyprian wrote a treatise against it', and Optatus, Augustine, and many others, have written copiously against the various sects of the Novatians, Donatists,

colligit, Christi ecclesiam spar- ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ. . . . εἰ δὲ ἀπει git."-De Unit. p. 254.

h Ibid. p. 258.

· Έδει μὲν γὰρ καὶ πᾶν ὁτιοῦν παθεῖν, ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ διακόψαι τὴν

θούντων ἀδυνατοίης, σώζων σώζε τὴν σεαυτοῦ ψυχήν. Euseb. Hist. vi. 45.

De Unitate Ecclesiæ Catholicæ.

Manichæans, &c. who had separated themselves from the communion of the church. Augustine declares, that "there is nothing more grievous than the sacrilege of schism "."

3. Nor were these merely the sentiments of the early ages, they were always received by the whole body of Christians up to the period of the Reformation, and by the infinite majority of professing Christians for a long time after. All agreed that Christians ought to hold external communion with their brethren everywhere, and that separation from the church was a grievous sin. Calvin affirms, that "a departure from the visible church is a denial of God and Christ; wherefore we must beware of so wicked a dissent, because when we are attempting, so far as in us lies, the ruin of God's truth, we deserve to be crushed beneath the thunders of his extremest wrath. Nor can any more atrocious crime be imagined, than the violation, by sacrilegious perfidy, of that marriage, which the onlybegotten Son of God has deigned to contract with us"." The nonconformist Baxter says: "He that is out of the church, is without the teaching, the holy worship, the prayers and the discipline of the church; and is out of the way where the Spirit doth come, and out of the society which Christ is especially related to: for he is the Saviour of the body, and if we once leave his hospital, we cannot expect the presence and help of

e Cont. Parmenian. ii. 2. "Unde sequitur, discessionem ab ecclesia, Dei et Christi negationem esse: quo magis a tam scelerato dissidio cavendum est: quia dum veritatis Dei ruinam, quantum in nobis est, molimur, digni sumus ad quos conterendos

toto iræ suæ impetu fulminet. Nec ullum atrocius fingi crimen potest, quam sacrilega perfidia violare conjugium, quod nobiscum unigenitus Dei Filius contrahere dignatus est."-Calvin Institut. iv. c. i. § 10.

the physician. Nor will he be a pilot to them who forsake his ship, nor a captain to those who separate from his army. Out of this ark there is nothing but a deluge, and no place of rest or safety for a soul".” Owen the Independent observes of the communion of churches, that "the church that confines its duty unto the acts of its own assemblies, cuts itself off from the external communion of the church catholic; nor will it be safe for any man to commit the conduct of his soul to such a church';" and again: "That particular church which extends not its duty beyond its own assemblies and members, is fallen off from the principal end of its institution. And every principle, opinion, or persuasion, that inclines any church to confine its care and duty unto its own edification only, yea, or of those only which agree with it in some peculiar practice, making it neglective of all due means of the edification of the church catholic, is schismatical "." Owen accordingly admits the propriety, and even necessity, of synods, and other modes of mutual aid and communi

e Baxter's "Cure of Church -Declaration of Faith of the Division." Congregational or Indep. Disf True Nature of the Gospel senters, A.D 1833, (No. 20.) Church, p. 413.

g Ibid. 414, 415. Even in the present day the Independents, as they say, "believe that Jesus Christ directed his followers to live together in Christian fellowship, and to maintain the communion of saints; and that for this purpose, they are jointly to observe all divine ordinances, and maintain that church order and discipline, which is either expressly enjoined by inspired institution, or sanctioned by the undoubted example of the apostles, and of apostolic churches."

The dissenting "Library of Eccl. Knowledge" says, that among the "duties and enjoyments" of churches, is, "communion with other churches, in letters recommendatory or dismissory, when members remove from one place to another. These, and all other expressions of Christian regard to sister churches .. .. .. are a part of the communion of saints, which constitutes one of the greatest blessings of the true catholic church," &c.-On Ch. Discipline, Essays on Ch. Polity, vol. ii. p. 417.