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Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Stre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichi, il est film6 d partir de i'angh supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 32 X 1 2 3 4 5 6 HEDESIES OF THE PLYMOUTH BRETHHEN, A SERMON Preached in St. Paul's Church, Kiugfston, March 6, 1§70 BY THE BISHOP OF ONTARIO. FabliBhed by Reqaest. KINGSTON : PRINTBD AT THE DAILY NEWS OFFICK. 1870. Rcqoi no. 003^ M4fU N.it(on,ii Library Bibliolhequ." national,. ■ ■ ot CaiMfja ,jy Canada ^^fni^\<^ ^^ T^\ '\ ^4 A SERMON. hBrlZ.'^ Tl"'""' B''*"'"-™^ *>">t tliere is some good even m brooks, se/„,o„B in stonS a d good „ evernl.'in^ "' lu?'"^ 1=.. S;:; r.K:» vi;,i£M" •" are swallowed when an old one is revivpd nl a ""'' *^'^^ the in We 4at ^^1 lo AtSgl'll^ they can find the best delivery. Now, a new heresy, or rather an old one revived, is nieetlnjr with great attention in this city, and I am jiistihed in trying to turn the fact to good account bv S?I"1 * '' T'"^^''^"- f^'y^ In the first pFace I have been asked to do so by many ; but as I am not bound to do every- thing that I am asked to do, I shall give you some other rea- sons. At my Ordination I promised "to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrarv to God's word '" and the heresies of the Plymouth Brethreirare as erroneous strange, and contrary to God's word as can well be imagined' 1,1 1? "^"li l'^'''^^',^ ^'" "^'^ *^'^ a-gress. The ga^intlet las been thrown down, and churc^i members seduced to istentolreachersvyho conduct their services during church Hours Ihey plainly aim at compassing our city to nia^'c proselytes, a city too which in proportion to its j)opulation, is better provided I think with the means of grace tlian any other in the Dominion. You will take notice that they generally select such places as the sphere of their operations, fliere are alas ! too many places in the country districts called " destitute settlements but such have no attractions for these preachers. Ihere are hamlets in the backwoods where the settlers are thanktul to have the Gospel preached even once a month, but these men prefer to distract their hearers in the comfortable haunts of city hie. Ihey should not, therefore, be left nn- challenged, because experience tells us that no heresy is too contemptible to be dangerous, and you must not think me uncharitable. There is no room for charity in a question of lact. _ When our doctrines are pronounced soul-destroying and iinscriptural, there can be gemleness and good tempef and pity, but no charity in the sense of compromise, when we make reply. U 1 were made aware that a large number of the mem- bers of this Congregation were in the habit of attendins: a Komish place of v/orship, I should think it my duty to warn them against it. I should use very strong language. ' I should fire you against the system by holding it up to the mirror of reason and Scripture, and bid you withdraw from countenanc- ing by your presence, a church which I believe to be the same as It ever was in its haughty intolerance, and you would not deem me uncharitable. And when I am told that a laro-e number of you are countenancing by your attendance a system wliich IS equally pernicious, though in another direction, I am not to be thought uncharitable if I denounce it and warn you I am not aware that the ''Brethren'' have any written creed' hence there is difficulty in getting at their exact tenets, but I ^i , sliall dwell upon a few of their j^eeuliarities which are admit- ted. I. The moral law, thej say, is not the rule of the believers' hte. I am sorry to say that they act accordingly in their system ot making converts. At first there is not "mnch to alarm m their proceedings. Tliey preach the Gospel without money and without price. Their cry is, "Come to Jesus," hut by and by when the time has been skilfully chosen by these adei)ts in «ie system of reserve, the whisper is, "Come oiit of the Church." liiis would have been too startling at the outset, so it is reserv- ed til], "they have crept into houses and led captive silly women and sillier men. But let us see what the ScriiUuro says on this subject of the binding force ot the Mural Law If the Moral Law bo not the rule of life, the Scriptures are not the rule of laith. Our blessed Lord summed up the Moral Law when lie said " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all mind," thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets " In the Sermon on the Mount He laid down the grand maxim, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." He emphatically disclamed all intention of destroying the law and the prophets, but on the contrary said He came to fuliil them, and promised "that m-Iio- soever shall do and teach them, shall be called great \ lie kingdom of Heaven." St. Paul echoes his master's teach me by telling iis that "the law is holy, and the commandments holy, and just, and good." It is doing dishonor to Christ to torget what ho said, in thinking on wliat he did, and the church would warn us all against this error, for in her seventh article she says : "No christian man is free from the obedience ot the commandments whit!! are called moral," and in her most solemn act of worship— the holy communion, she pre- taces the sacrament with the recitation of the Decalo by saying they utterly deny the Uiurch Catechism. Indeed with them a catechism' is useless, because their religious tenets can only be held by adults. Oidy believers are saved, say they. Eut children could never under- stand the metai)hysical reh'gion of these teachers. No one, say they, is saved till he can say, " I do believe, I will bt-lieve, tluit Jesus died for me," in a totally different sense from sayin--- He "tasted death for every nian,'^ and therefore died for ine.^ As has been well said by the present Regius Professor of Divinity in Dublin University, ''The majority of these teachers hold that Jesus did not die for all ; that all for whom he ro,niHeH made j"" a , Havn Ht P,o. ? "" "^ow. If ye be Chrisi'H, then are y(> A di S h nil ,lT-"' according to tlie pron.iso." *' Vour I' at ./A hn 1 n • ■! the promises, but hav ,?. e .' .t If ;?^'"^^^"« r«««i ved of them, and embracL^I t ! '' 'a1 I ^^^T,^'^ such like passages of God'K W. d are 1 e ^i^ ' " 7?^' ren, or rather are flatly contra.licte.l. Ihit tl u 01 i %. ^o« '" mg IS unmistakably scriptural on this ooln W *^^.°^'" the song of Zachariah, or the bIcH e Vi S w, li'^T^ f "^ ize by appending to each a (Horia Patri. O r' ,2^^ f !!^T ing a lesson from the Old and New iWtii en ? ''^'^" equal respect for both, an w.-ll an hnitS Z 1.^^? ?r Jewish synagogue whore lesKouH wru-n n'fl fVo f ^^'\K^^ ^^'^ and the Prophets. T.io J.ord'H Pi-nvo.. ffl u- • '""*^' ^"^ compositionfbut is n CO.;,!;;',:.' ;;:^r;;,:r;,!.;i'i:;'j;' 3^^^^^ 8 Jowibh Oliurc'li, our Lord tliUB intiniatii.^' that JIIh eccUsia was' not to bo nil original striicturo, l»ut to 1)0 built upon tho tbun- dations of tho Apostlos and Projyhetii. Tho PasBover and Circumcision arc tho truo orij^inalri of tho Lord's Supper and Baptism. Confirmation \a an a(hiptation of thu Jewish rite ears came (as our Lord whereby Jewa at tho a«i;o of twelve y liimself (lid) to the Tenij)lo, underwent Law, and received the Priest's bleBsin<'. P)ishoi)s, an examination in tlie Priests and Priests and Deacons are tho co-rehitives of tho lligh Priest Lovites. The Christian Churcli bears somewhat tho same relation to the Jewish ccdoda that the New Testament does to tho Old. Tho Old is unfolded by the New, and the New is enfolded in the Old. But my limits prevent my attempting to exhaust my proofs. SuHice it to say that two of the Evan- gelists before giving the history of the Saviour's life take caro to continue the identity of tho dispensation by recording tho genealogy of Christ, tracing the second Adam to the first Adam, and to tho Father ot the faithful, while the Apostles, when striving to convert the Jews to Christianity, always com- mence by a recapitulation. Thus St. Stephen at Jerusalem and St. Paul at Antioch, recapitulate, in order to show how natural and philosophical was tho transition from tho Jewish to tho Christian Church. In short, there should not bo a blank page between the Old and New Testaments. Time should no more disconnect the Prophet Malachi from St. Matthew than it should sever Exodus from Genesis. The unity of the Church of God in all ages is undeniable. In the wondrous scene of the Transfiguration the three Dispensations or jdiases of the same Church — the Mosaic, tho Prophetical, and the Christian — appeared as one in aim and interest. They speak of the atone- ment, the " decease which Ho should accomplish at Jerusalem." And we trace this identity still farther back, even to the Patriarchial Dispensation, because St. Paul tells us that " the Scripture preached before tho Gospel unto Abraham," fully justifying our solemn Good Friday prayer, in which we as members of Christ's Church call ourselves the Hrue Isi'oelites.''^ III. The next heresy of the Brethren which I am compelled to warn you against is, that a Christian ought not to prav either to tlie Holy Spirit ovfor the Holy Spirit. This shocking error, which involves a denial of a triune God, springs from the idea that a saved mar has already received the Spirit, and that it is absurd to ask for what he possesses sufficiently for salva- tion. But whether we possess the Holy Spirit's influence or not, can only be decided by ascertaining whether we exhibit 9 " the fniltB of tlio Si)!rit," and tlicy are love, joy, |)cace, long- siiflbring, gontlenoss, etc. Now, the Brethren must U8rtiinie that they possess these ^ifts and show these fruits to perfection if they will not ask tor lar^rer measures of them. They so far exceed St. Paul in attainments that they think they are' already uerfect. He nuule it a rule to " forget those thin/^'s which were behind, and to reach forward to things tluit were before," and even to co-operate with the grace of God hy "keepi:ig under his body and bringing it into subjection," lest he should after all be "a castaway," " mortifying the flesh with the alfections and lusts." The Brethren know nothing of "growth in grace," or of "adding to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge tomperance," etc. These graces they i)osse8s so perfectly that they deem it wrong to i)ray for an additional supply ! Against this soul-destroying delusion the whole system of the Church is opposed. The ])rincipleof our religious life is the ])rayerful use of means whereby we " may daily increase in His Holy Spirit more and more, until we come to His everlasting Kingdom." And regarding the blasphemy which forbids prayer to the Si)irit, I can only bring myself to say in protest, "O God, the Iloly Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, have mercy upon us,- and " I believe in the Holy Ghost, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified." IV. An error quite as bad as any of i former is that of maintaining tluit the Church consists of the saved only. Al- though it is vain to quote scripture against people who accept as scripture such passages only as suit their views. Let me remind you that our Lord took what seems like pains to warn us against this folly. The Kingdom of Heaven,'or the visible Church, is by Him compared to a " net cast into tlie sea which gathers of every kind," and to a field in which " wheat and tares grow together till the harvest," or the end of the world. But these heretics forestall the angels' work and anticipate the Judgment. They gather the saved into the barn of the visible Church, and a small one truly it is— the sect of the Plymouth Brethren ! The Lord, we are told by St. Luke, " added to the Church " such as were being saved, or on the road to salvation. But, according to the Brethren, you must first be saved and then add yourself to the Church— that is, to themselves. It is scarcely necessary to say how different was St. Paul's estimate of Church members. He writes to the " Church of God at Corinth, to thcni that are sanctified and called to be saiuts'"' — an address sufficiently explicit ; and yet the whole letter is one 10 continuous reproof of their sins and irregularities, wliile he at the siaiie tune tells them that they were "the body of Christ and menibers in particular." And now, my brethren, let me sum up the errors you are called upon to avoid, as you love your own salvation. Should any come to you even in the garb of an angel of light preaching another gospel-one which dSiics tha. Christians are bound to the Moral Law as a rule of life, which sets aside the observance of tlie Lord's Day and disallows an authorized imnisti^y, "receive him not into your houses nor wish him God speed." Reflect upon the awful gulf which separates the Christian who can sav the Lord's Prayer from him who cannot-th^ Christian who believes that " in the 01d_ Testament everlasting life is oflfered to mankind by Christ, from the man who "feigns that the old fethers did look only for transitory promises." How low the descent from the Jiigli am, ot growing in grace through the use of divinely appointed means ordained by Christ Himself to the concep- tion ot a salvation all at once, matured and evidenced by the repeating of set phrases— a salvation procured hefore your admission into the sect, and neither forwarded nor wrought out in fear and trembling" afterwards. How shocking is the presumption which practically ignores the Old Testament, and so much of the New as is made u;) of (piotations from it— a mass of extracts which if collected together would occupy a ye equal tj, that of St. Matth.ew's Gospel, which says-^in ettect that Christ was a bad religious economist; that His commissioning Apostles to commission others, and to eive us rules of Church order, was either unnecessary or only a tem- porary arrHngement with which we can dispense; and that sa vation may be had without the possibility of forfeiture, by .submitting oiirsL^ yes to the manipulation of preachers who knowhow to kindle a Are of vehement emotion. It IS not probable that I am now addressing any Church members who have given in their adhesion to such delusions as 1 have described. But should there be any such in this great congregation, I candidly confess that I have not the slightest hope of making an impression upon them. I may have given them arguments ; but the same incapacity which caused them to embrace the delusion will frustrate the force of any argu- ment._ 1 cannot understand the character of one who under the stimulant of excitement, in a moment giyes the lie to the profession of a lifetime, which in an instant discovers that the ^ioio iuib been ror twenty or thirty years to him a sealed book- exhibits himself as a victim of the absurdity of private judg^ 11 ment and, without the consideration he would give to a worldly speculation, flings off the faith of his fatheFs, "like a garment unsuited to the climate"; aye, and hands himself over soul and conscience, as unreservedly and as pitiably into the fesso? ^^^^''^"*"^'^^^' ^^ ^^'^^ did Romish devotee to his Con- And if I am now speaking to any church members who en- courage these sectaries by listening to, while unheeding, their utterances, let me warn you against the sin of leading weaker brethren mto a temptation which you are strong enough to resist yourselves, l^he mere attendance on religiSus novelties argues a secret dissatisfaction with your professed principles wJT'.i .A^''^^^'^* ""'^^ Churchman who is not satisfied wi h theJChurch's Creed as a ^^ient means of conveying to him all the spiritual life he needs, does not understand it- and I therefore beseech such, that before they break awav Irom their present anchorage, they will devote the time now spent in listening to contradictions of everything we hold sacred, to a prayerful struggle to understand their own religion. When "peace and joy ui believing" shall thus have been obtained, let the victims ot these heresies be the obiect of your solicitude and prayers, for a deeper downfall yet awaits many of thcni since misbelief is the fruitful parent of unbelief. fi. n ''?^''\rV^^^''^i''\^ ^^'^'' "" practical admonition taken from God s Holy Word. If you believe that God does not now employ miraculous agency to enforce the Gospel of His bon, hen ask for the crecFentials of those who undertake to preach it. How shall they preach except they be sent," asks ^t. 1 aul, and no ambassador sends himself. " No man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God, as was Aaron, and God now calls no man save by the ordinary com- mission from His Church. If a man thinks he has a divTil^ commission we niay justly call upon him for a miraculous attestation for God's having thus deviated from His ordinary providence in that man's ^ behalf. But if he say that he can fe^ no.Tbf/-f ^^"V'- 'r"i^"^ ^^'^^ ^^''''^^ f'-^^" ^^ "Eternal teehng that it is the Spirit who is prompting him, then let St. John, who of all the apostles had most experience of heresies be heard saying " Beloved, believe not every spirit, but trv the spirits whether thev arc of God: because many false prophets ?f4?rh:j sf nv-V'^^'h" "^'"'^-^ Jf^ possible ?ha^he p.v„cnt neiesy may liuve been permitted in order to make manifest those who "are approved," and that its motive power may be, not tlie Holy Spirit, but the spirit of novelty or 12 notoriety, the spirit of self-conceit or sectarian ambition. I have now discharged ray duty in "warning every man," that he may be presented at last " Holy and unblameable and irreproachable in His sight, if you continue in the faith,, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hopa of the Gospel which ye have heard." Amen. ^ It