Just been listening to a very challenging and thought-provoking talk by Ian Hamilton on principled pragmatism. He seeks to bring out and dust off a neglected emphasis in the Reformed tradition – a passionate concern for the unity of the visible church. A concern that looks shockingly liberal and ecumenical to most modern reformed evangelicals but is tied to a very high value placed on both the local church fellowship and on the body of Christ. It reminded me of this passage in Baxter’s classic The Reformed Pastor:
We must be very studious of union and communion among ourselves, and of the unity and peace of the churches that we oversee. We must be sensible how needful this is to the prosperity of the whole, the strengthening of our common cause, the good of the particular members of our flock, and the further enlargement of the kingdom of Christ. And, therefore, ministers must smart when the Church is wounded, and be so far from being the leaders in divisions, that they should take it as a principal part of their work to prevent and heal them. Day and night should they bend their studies to find out means to close such breaches. They must not only hearken to motions for unity, but propound them and prosecute them; not only entertain an offered peace, but even follow it when it flies from them. They must, therefore, keep dose to the ancient simplicity of the Christian faith, and the foundation and center of catholic unity. They must abhor the arrogancy of them that frame new engines to rack and tear the Church of Christ under pretense of obviating errors and maintaining the truth. The Scripture sufficiency must be maintained, and nothing beyond it imposed on others; and if papists, or others, call to us for the standard and rule of our religion, it is the Bible that we must show them, rather than any confessions of churches, or writings of men. We must learn to distinguish between certainties and uncertainties, necessaries and unnecessaries, catholic verities and private opinions; and to lay the stress of the Church’s peace upon the former, not upon the latter. We must avoid the common confusion of speaking of those who make no difference between verbal and real errors, and hate that madness formerly among theologians, who tear their brethren as heretics, before they understand them. And we must learn to see the true state of controversies, and reduce them to the very point where the difference lies, and not make them seem greater than they are. Instead of quarrelling with our brethren, we must combine against the adversaries; and all ministers must associate and hold communion, and correspondence, and constant meetings to these ends; and smaller differences of judgment are not to interrupt them. They must do as much of the work of God, in unity and concord, as they can, which is the use of synods; not to rule over one another, and make laws, but to avoid misunderstandings, and consult for mutual edification, and maintain love and communion, and go on unanimously in the work that God has already commanded us. Had the ministers of the gospel been men of peace, and of catholic, rather than factious spirits, the Church of Christ had not been in the case it now is. The nations of Lutherans and Calvinists abroad, and the differing parties here at home, would not have been plotting the subversion of one another, nor remain at that distance, and in that uncharitable bitterness, nor strengthen the common enemy, and hinder the building and prosperity of the Church as they have done.
fidelnyikuri
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Baxter is great and I have this book somewhere…
Particularly,
“We must learn to distinguish between certainties and uncertainties, necessaries and unnecessaries, catholic verities and private opinions…”
I appreciate this, mate. In thinking of certainties and uncertainties, my mind immediately runs to another ‘debate’ but what I’m also thinking is that some matters arising in these days don’t even warrant a debate! I was reading a snippet from somewhere last week of the Scottish C of S ministers who describe the doctrine of substitutionary atonement as being a ‘ghastly theology’.
Anyway, I was also aware in reading John 17 earlier today that this emphasis of unity that Baxter writes about was at the core of Jesus’ prayers for His men and the NT church
Pax
N
Interestingly Ian Hamilton’s talk was very much speaking in the light of the Church of Scotland debates. Part of his point is that it is strange when evangelicals get vocal about particular recent issues (even when those are very serious and certain) when they have not been similarly upset about the ordination of those denying the Trinity, the uniqueness of Christ or substitutionary atonement. He also mentions how the pursuit of unity for the greats of the past was indeed rooted in John 17 – a passage I’m finding increasingly complex, deep and mind-blowing.
‘mind-blowing’ sums it up!
Though John the Baptist didn’t sit in a room, or by a warm fire, and resign his mind to just ring blown; he allowed the ‘blowing’ to fan a flame that spoke out against the anti-Christ lies