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// 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHEl) 
 
 ON THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT, 
 
 IN ST. PETER'S CHURCH, COi'OUliQ, 
 
 BY 
 
 A. N. BETHUNE, D.D., D.C.L. 
 
 ARCnDKACON OF TORONTO, AND RECTOR OF COBOURO. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 H. ROWSELL, KING STREET. 
 
 1864. 
 
«■■' 
 
il. 
 
 SERMON. 
 
 1 Timothy, iii., 15.-" The Church of the living God, the pillar and 
 
 ground of the truth." 
 
 There is a close connection, my brethren, between the 
 Collects appointed for the first three Sundays in Advent; 
 and it was no doubt intended that, in substance and purpose, 
 they should have this bearing one upon the other. 
 
 We have, first, t.ic iumounccu^.ont of Christ's coming;^ of 
 His coming in the flesh, and His coming to judgment. This 
 points, as we may say, to the beginning and the end of our 
 destiny as Christians,-that heaven is our allotted inheri- 
 tance, and Jesus the way to obtain it. 
 
 But this was a great truth not to be thrown rashly, and 
 only incidentally, upon the world ; it was not to be a revela- 
 tion dependent merely upon traditionary recollections. A. 
 truth so important and momentous must bo treasured up in 
 the written ivord ; it must be distinct and clear amongst the 
 recorded doctrines of the Bible. So, then, we have a Sun- 
 day in Advent specially for the Holy Scriptures,-for the 
 divine and abiding testimony to that great truth of the 
 Lord's two-fold Advent ; the truth which moulds our present, 
 and regulates our future ; which states the foundation of our 
 hopes, and the ground of our fears ; which proclaims our 
 immortality, and tells how it may be rendered a blessed and 
 a happy one. 
 
But this holy Volume, this precious Word of God, was 
 not to be flung, as it were, upon the v/aters, to float, as it 
 might, down the stream of time, without any provision to 
 preserve its integrity, and guard it from mutilation. There 
 must be a "witness and keeper of Holy Writ ;" and, as our 
 twentieth article expresses it, the Church is constituted for 
 that oflice. What is known, and what is taught of our 
 blessed Lord, is contained in the Holy Scriptures ; but the 
 Church is, under God, the guardian and proclairaer of those 
 truths. Iler ministers and ambassadors are taught to urge 
 them ; and they are to dispense the ordinances by which 
 believers are to be kept in visible union with Christ their 
 Head. Our third Sunday in Advent, therefore, specially 
 takes up the oflice of the ministry ; and, in so doing, points 
 specially to the organization of the Church, and its claim, 
 as a divine appointment, upon the veneration, love, and 
 obedience of all true believers. 
 
 When it is said,, in the Acts of the Apostles, that ^Hhe 
 Lord added unto the church daily such as should be saved;" 
 when, as in the text, it is called " the Church of the living 
 God, the pillar and ground of the truth," — it is evident that 
 it was our Lord's intention to organize and establish an 
 institution which should comprise, as in a household, all his 
 believing people ; which should hold, and maintain, and 
 teach the doctrines by which they were to be guided. In 
 giving this a name, He gave it distinctiveness: he Fh^wed 
 that the church was not to be an abstraction, but something 
 visible and material; a society arranged and settled by laws 
 and rules, — with such an organization as would ensure its 
 perpetuity. When such laws and rules can, as in this case, 
 be referred to a Divine head, we have a security that they 
 will be firmly maintained ; whereas if we let go this sanction, 
 there could be no certainty about it, and the Church would 
 partake of as many aspects as there are varieties in human 
 opinion. 
 
 
1 
 
 i 
 
 There will always be differences of construction and inter- 
 pretation upon what is revealed; yet, although there are 
 occasional instances of eccentricity or impulsiveness, which 
 will throw men out of a rational judgment upon such things, 
 there are points on which the great majority of sober and 
 careful inquirers will always agrea. So it is the conviction 
 of a vast majority of professed Christians, that a Church, in 
 its outline, constitution, and distinctive visible features, 
 has been organized or sanctioned by our Lord; and the same 
 feeling will generally cause them to admit and appreciate 
 what, under the name of tlie Church, is constructed and 
 governed according to our Lord's will. 
 
 Examining the New Testament, and comparing with it 
 the early Christian writers, we cannot fail to discover that 
 there was originally, — and that there was for several cen- 
 turies maintained, — a oneness of aspect, faith, and organiza- 
 tion in the Church ; every where there was one obvious and 
 recognized frame-work of that holy society. Except in a 
 few cases, which were always strongly condemned by the 
 general voice of believers, there was no such thing as depar- 
 ture or deviation from the rules, and government, and order 
 which then characterized " the Church of the living God." 
 
 It is very evident that the believers on the name of Christ 
 were not to stand isolated and separate, each to pursue his 
 own way and will ; but they must be part and parcel of that 
 organized association. Their admission into this society, by 
 the Lord's appointed way, was to be the test of their union 
 with Ilim. It was the established means, — and, as far as 
 we know, the only means, — by which they were to obtain 
 the privileges and benefits conferred by His death. 
 
 Some, we are aware, will argue differently ; and vory 
 frequently their repugnance to joining such an institution 
 arises from the dislike of restraint, — they have an aversion 
 to be trammeled and fettered by rules. They may fancy, 
 too, that by avoiding the positive profession which union 
 
6 
 
 with the Church implies, they keep themselves free from 
 responsibility, and will escape the punishment of broken 
 vows and engagements. 
 
 But it requires very few words to shew, how erroneous 
 and how dangerous such a sentiment is. At best, in avoid- 
 ing such profession, men class themselves with heathens 
 and unbelievers ; they put themselves upon a level with that 
 large portion of mankind, which have never heard of a 
 Saviour. And if this be a safe condition, then Christ must 
 have died in vain ; it would be useless, in that case, to 
 preach the Gospel, or to try to convert the infidel and 
 idolater. But if they would shrink from such a sentiment 
 as this, and admit that out of Christ there is no salvation, 
 they must avail themselves of it by the appointed means. 
 The promise and profession, however weighty and solemn, 
 must be made and kept up, if they would obtain pardon of 
 their sins, and be received at last into God's kingdom of 
 
 glory. 
 
 This being the case, it should, my brethren, be a matter 
 of deep concern and anxious inquiry with us, whether the 
 spiritual society in which ive are enrolled, is really the one 
 which can be traced out, and proved, to have been constituted 
 by cur Lord in the beginning. This we confe'-s to be a 
 delicate inquiry. The Christian world is much split up into 
 sects and parties ; and each of these would claim to be right. 
 Divisions of this sort, in the face of scriptural precept and 
 Apostolic practice, we must confess to be unfortunate, hard 
 as it may have been in some cases to avoid them ; and pos- 
 sibly a sort of justification is pleaded by such sects and par- 
 ties, because our own Church of England is accused of having 
 herself the aspect of a sect or divided part of Christianity, 
 inasmuch as, at the Reformation, she departed from what 
 was then recognized as the universal Catholic Church. 
 
 But let us try to fix the truth of this matter in our under- 
 standings, and graft it amongst our unalterable principles. 
 
 -r 
 
 4 
 
\ 
 
 The Church in our mother-country was planted there, if not 
 by Apostles themselves, certainly by those who were taught 
 by and conversed with Apostles. We have the most ample 
 testimony to that effect ; as well as evidence of the fact that 
 the Church of Christ, both in Britain and Ireland, was an 
 independent Church. It certainly had no connection, and 
 scarcely any intercourse, with the Church of Rome for about 
 five centuries f^om its first formation. Its sympathies Pad 
 associations did not lie in that direction at all ; and there is 
 proof, from certain marked peculiarities in religious worship 
 and usages, that the Britons derived their first ministers, 
 and their first knowledge of Christianity, from the Eastern 
 Christians. When, at the end of the sixth century, Gregory, 
 bishop of Rome, sent over the celebrated missionary, Augus- 
 tine, into Britain, the latter found a Church there, strug- 
 gling, it is true, with many difficulties, but still a vigorous 
 and independent church. Its Bishops affirmed distinctly 
 that they owed no subjection to Rome ; that they had a 
 metropolitan amongst themselves ; and tb'>t ^-''--iy vf»re deter- 
 mined to adhere to those rules and usag had pre- 
 vailed amongst them from the beginning 
 
 And the whole Church of our mother- t on in 
 
 this state of independence and purity for aL . centu- 
 
 ries more ; when the universal dominion acquire, m those 
 dark ages by the Church of Rome, extended to the Churches 
 of our parent countries also. They, like others, came under 
 that despotism for a time ; and like others, they admitted its 
 corrupt doctrines and superstitious practices. Not, however, 
 without much conflict and a frequent resistance. That yoke 
 alvirays sat heavily upon the Briti.di people ; they were 
 always restive under that usurped dominion. If, indeed, 
 the chains of that spiritual despotism had been firmly riveted, 
 and there had been a universal and cordial acceptance of 
 those corrupt tenets, the Reformation in England in the 
 sirteenth century would not have been so e&sj and general 
 a thing as it proved to be. 
 
8 
 
 And here let us consider fairly what a Reformation means. 
 Surely not a thorough and complete demolition of the whole 
 fabric, but the purification and correction of abuses. The 
 Church, though corrupted and defiled, was still a scriptural 
 and apostolic institution. Errors and superstitions could not 
 destroy its form or model ; they could not touch the strong 
 rock of its foundation. Our Reformers, then, did what duty 
 and wisdom prompted. They cleared awny that rubbish of 
 superstition ; they removed those incrustations of error and 
 defilement; and they restored to a gladdened people the 
 primitive holiness, as well as completeness, of the Church of 
 the living God. The Bishops of our communion, roused up 
 from the trance and thraldom of a long night of error, 
 stripped off their Episcopal robes, — not to trample them 
 under their feet, and reject them as unlawful things ; but 
 they washed and made clean those garments — which had come 
 down in legitimate course, as the mantle from Elijah to 
 Elisha — and stood again, in their original and undofiled 
 vestments, before the altar of their God. 
 
 In this way, my brethren, we came back again to the order, 
 and fellowship, and doctrine of the Apostles. Tiie change 
 from the soundness of their principles had been violently 
 and unauthorizedly made by the ambitious and despotic ; and 
 the whole nation, as soon as possible, — as soon as a right and 
 lawful direction was given to their efforts, — repudiated that 
 change, and brought the Church back again to its original 
 condition ; to what it was, at its first planting in the land by 
 Apostolic hands. 
 
 We ought, then, to consider it a great privilege and a 
 great blessing to belong to this, the primitive Chu:'ch of our 
 mother country, — this real and truthful branch of the first 
 planted " Church of the living God." Man-- good and pious 
 men and women, who, from early and traditionary instruction, 
 had been led off from it, have came back to it again, after 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 1 
 
'4i 
 
 
 % 
 
 9 
 
 thej have viewed il; in this liorht. Many, indeed, who had 
 been exercising their ministry under various forms of ir- 
 regularity and schism, hive thrown up what they were con- 
 vinced was an unauthorized commission, and have become 
 dispensers of God's Word and Sacromenta in what, by hered- 
 itary claim and title, is proved to be a sound and veritable 
 branch of the primitive Church of Christ. 
 
 People are prono to lay great stress upon hereditary de- 
 scent from exalterl and illustrious ancestors, and to pride them- 
 selves upon the antiquity and nobleness of their origin. This 
 is an excusable pride, if it lead to an emulation of°those who 
 have made their name great. 
 
 But no such mere earfMy distinction is equal to the honour 
 of belonging to that great spiritual family which was organi' ^d 
 by our Lord and Apostles ; and which, through age. xnd 
 generations,--often in the fiery furnace, and often in the 
 deep waters,— has come down, widening and strengthening, 
 to our own time ; its name, its laws, its symbols, its high 
 indents, all unchanged. Earonial jastles, stateiv halts, 
 gorgeous palaces, are as nothing in comparison witn this,—' 
 " the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the 
 truth." The best decked and most luxurious banquets upon 
 earth are insignificant, when set side by side with the feast 
 of feasts which the Lord hath provided for his own household 
 m commemoration of His body broken, and His blood shed 
 for us. 
 
 But though it be a great privilege to belong thus to 
 Christ's family, and a great duty to adhere to it, we n^ust 
 beware of the folly and sin of disparaging those who are less 
 favourably circumstanced. It is oftentimes their misfortune 
 rather than their fault; and piety, zeal, and conscientious- 
 ncss are to be honoured, even if they are exercised in irregu- 
 lar and mistaken courses. Still, respect for them, and love 
 for them, should not hinder the desire of seeing them as we 
 
10 
 
 are,— one with us ; and all, one with Christ. It is an ad- 
 mitted and a high duty to convert to Christianity those who 
 are strangers to it ; who are groping in heathen darkness ; 
 and who do not know the way of reconciliation to God. And 
 if so, H is a duty, as far as in us lies, to keep the Church 
 one ; to maintain its unity and integrity; to preserve it in 
 its original identity and communion with its divine head. 
 This we may and should do with the weapons of love, with 
 the arguments of Christian persuasion,— without reviling, 
 without unkind and uncharitable imputations. 
 
 This maintenance of unity in the Church we should feel 
 to be a duty; though many will affirm it to be a matter of 
 indiiference, so long as truth of doctrine is preserved. But. 
 we are not authorised to draw any such distinction; we 
 have no right to pronounce any thing unessential which our 
 Lord has appointed or sanctioned. There are no "little 
 things" connected with the organization of the Church of 
 the living God. We should not dare to change the waters 
 in Baptism, nor the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, 
 for any other substance: these are in themselves small 
 matters, but their appointment by Christ gives to their use 
 a perpetual and un 'langeable authority. Just so in re- 
 gard to the continuity of the government of the Church, 
 and its rules of order and worship,— we must adhere to 
 what we find laid down in the Lord's weds, and established 
 by the testimony of His immediate followers. 
 
 Keligion itself is very much endangered by looseness 
 and indifference upon this point,— if men have no allegiance, 
 no tie to the Church of the living God beyond taste, or 
 habit, or inclination; if they can be " blown about by every 
 wind of doctrine;" if they can be driven hither and thither 
 by the mere charm of oratory, or the force of declamation. 
 Such laxity and indifference would bo attended with fearful 
 conseciuences, if admitted into the practice of ordinary life. 
 
11 
 
 , '\ 
 
 If, upon such pretences, the government of a country could 
 be altered, and new laws and authorities set up at pleasure 
 in its room, how lamentable would be the result ? If the 
 relation of husband and wife could, on such grounds, be 
 severed, what terrible calamities would ensue ? These are 
 very analogous cases ; and we could not, without incon- 
 sistency, draw a line between them. 
 
 We have, in fact, positive proofs before our eyes every 
 day of the evils and misfortunes which contempt of thi'^^ 
 great principle of the Divine organization of the Church 
 brings about. It leads a large body of men into actual 
 infidelity ; because, they argue, a Divine institution could 
 hardly present so many contradictions, so much division, so 
 much strife. Again, when Christians are mainly intent 
 upon their divisions ; when rival bodies are engaged in 
 watching each other; while they are seeking and striving 
 how they may best guard their separate interests against 
 the encroachments of others; little time is left, and little 
 inclination, for the cultivation of practical religion. The 
 contest, therefore, is no longer one with acknowledged and 
 common adversaries, but a strife between Christian bodies. 
 It is not how the common enemy of the faith may be sub- 
 dued, but how an ambitious and encroaching Christian rival 
 may be put down. It is not how the Lord's kingdom may 
 be advanced, but how a religious sect or party may be 
 built up. 
 
 Such dissensions, my brethren, are in every point of view 
 most sad; and it is a biassed thing that we have a refuge 
 from them in that which we can safely and truthfully call 
 the Church of the Apostles, the Church of the living God. 
 It was, no doubt, in foresight of their mischievous effects, 
 that St. Paul said, " Mark them which cause divisions 
 among you, and avoid them ;" and that a greater than St. 
 Paul, even our Lord Jesus Christ, prayed that His followers 
 might be **all one." 
 
12 
 
 Let it, then, be our supplication and our effort, that the 
 "multitude ofthem that believe may be of one heart and 
 one soul ;" that we may all, however scattered and estranged 
 be one household in Christ, having the same care one for 
 another, and minding the same thing; that so, being at 
 peace and united, the "Church may be edified," and its 
 members "grow together a holy temple in the Lord." 
 
 ■ 
 
 IIKNHY K0W8ELL, PRINTRM. KING HTRgRT TOSOiTO 
 
 I