A Sermon: Showing That in the Unity of Faith Is the Unity of the Church; And That Baptism Is Not an Ordinance, but a Rite (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Sermon: Showing That in the Unity of Faith Is the Unity of the Church; And That Baptism Is Not an Ordinance, but a Rite

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abra ham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Gal. Iii. 26 - 29.

AN analysis of this text, such as it seems both to invite and to demand, I purposely avoid, because it would break into my conception of a fair exegesis.

My first postulate is, that the unity of the faith implies and teaches the unity of the Church.

The term Church must be disabused of its popular idea, in order to a just conception of its unity. There are sects which believe absolutely that they are the Church as far as divine legitimacy goes - the elect lady Church. These all look to the absorption of all other Christian communities into their organization, because theirs is the Church. This is their idea of unity; but in the text, the real idea of it is found in the actual relations of the membership to God. They are the children of God, not through denominational alliance, but by faith in Christ Jesus; and the true Church - the body of Christ - is made up of God's real children. Christ is the Head; all true believers constitute his spiritual household his body. Hence the sin of schism. All usages, therefore, which divide true believers into legitimate and illegitimate members of Christ's body on account of outward forms, so as to admit to, or exclude from, the communion of saints in the Lord's-supper, entail the guilt of schism upon those who adopt and defend them.

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