n he exhorts to
national union he means union in the truth--union in the one great work
of purifying religion and reforming the corruptions of the church of
God. What urgent need there was of such a work he demonstrates at much
length, and with great freedom and faithfulness. Unless the church of
Christ be reformed it must perish from the earth, and those are its
worst enemies, not its real friends, who oppose such indispensable
reform."[317] "Everywhere," he says, "we see the church driven forward
to such reform. Ask even those who are most solicitous for its welfare,
and they will tell you that the church can no longer be safe or free
from troubles unless it be strengthened by the removal of abuses. If
this, then, is a measure of absolute necessity unless we would see the
whole church go to ruin; if all men confess that this should be done, if
facts themselves call with a loud voice that some care should be taken
to relieve the labouring [bark of the] church, to purify her depraved
doctrine, and to reform her whole administration,--why, I demand, are
those maligned and vilified who discover and point out the church's
faults and failings? The proper remedies could not possibly have been
applied till the disease was known; and yet the men who point it out,
warn of its virulence and danger, and wish to alleviate or entirely
remove it, are hated and persecuted as much as if they had been
themselves the cause of all." With equal vigour he repels the cry of
innovation raised against the reformers and their teaching. Their work
was rather an honest attempt at restoration. What they sought, he said,
"was just such a change as would take place in the manners of an age if
the gravity, modesty, and frugality of ancient times were to take the
place of levity, lewdness, luxury, and other vices. Such a change might
be termed the introduction of what was novel, but in fact it was only
the reintroduction of what was old and primitive. Let us," he exclaims,
"have innovation everywhere if only we can get the true for the false,
seriousness for levity, and solid realities for empty dreams." "It is no
new doctrine we bring, but the most ancient, nay rather the eternal
truth, for it proclaims that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the
world to save sinners, and that we are saved by faith in Him. Of Him
even Moses wrote, and to Him give all the prophets witness, that
whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. This is t