15. But Christians, as Paul says, have not a dead and dumb god, for
which the Lord be praised! Nor will we countenance such idols. We
have a living, speaking God, who gives us his infallible Word. We
know how he is disposed toward us and what we may expect from him;
namely: through faith in Christ we have forgiveness of sins and are
his beloved children; and as evidence of acceptance with God, we have
baptism and the Holy Supper, the office and gifts of the Holy Spirit,
by which he works in our hearts. We know that in the faith of Christ
our works and lives are pleasing to God, and that he will hear and
help when in our distress and weakness we cry unto him.
16. Where this confidence obtains, where hearts enjoy such faith,
there will be unity in the Church; for verily no one then will allow
himself to be led into the manifold doctrines of insensible idols.
But dissensions, sects and divisions are sure signs that the true
doctrine is either ignored or misunderstood, men thus being left in a
condition to be "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine," as Paul says (Eph 4, 14); which is indisputably the
case with these same schismatics who condemn the Church and her
doctrines because of some discordant ones.
The schismatics show by their very instability that they do not
embrace the true, uniform and established doctrine, nor can exhibit
any substitute for it. They refuse to see that in cases where the
Christian doctrine does not obtain, there is only blindness,
distraction and confusion, and warring factions and sects, none
agreeing with another, each claiming to be better than the other.
Numerous have been the sects of monks, and of saints of the Pope and
his god the devil, no two of which agreed. Each class regarded its
own whims and speculations, and claimed to be holier than the others.
The Pope, however, gave validity to them all, granting great
indulgence to these factious fraternities. And I am not saying
anything of other discords in the papacy--among the monasteries and
in the parishes, and between these and the cloisters everywhere,
perpetual quarreling, rioting and bitter contention. Such is
inevitably the case when righteousness and divine worship are made to
consist in external self-devised works and forms, for then each
individual, pleased with his own ideas, thinks his way right; under
such circumstances, there can never be unanimity of opinion as to
what is right and the best.
17. "From these numerous sources of disunion and idolatry," Paul
would say to the Corinthians, "you are now delivered. You know you
embrace the real Word of God, the true faith. You worship one God,
one Lord, and enjoy the same grace, the same Spirit, the same
salvation. You need not seek other forms and ceremonies as essential
to salvation--wearing a white or a gray cowl, refraining from this or
that food, forbearing to touch certain things. No diversity of
external service, of persons, offices and conditions, destroys the
unity in Christ.
"But take heed to continue in unity, to hold fast to it.
Unquestionably, you should be made wiser by the experience you have
had with error; in the future you ought to be prudent, and watchful
against being allured from the unity of this settled mind and true
faith into your former blindness again. But so it will certainly
befall you if you forget such grace and seek your own honor and
praise more than the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and his gifts, and
come to despise one another and to conduct yourselves as if you had
many and not the same God, the same Christ, the same Spirit. God's
gifts cannot be different from, but must be one with his nature, and
hence he cannot give to one a better Gospel or a different baptism
from that given another."
In short, Paul teaches there must be unity in Christ, otherwise we
have no Christ, no God and Holy Spirit, no grace nor salvation; as
the next verse emphasizes.
"Wherefore I make known unto you that no man speaking in the Spirit
of God saith, Jesus is anathema [calleth Jesus accursed]; and no man
can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit."
18. "Why make divisions and differences," Paul inquires, "in the
doctrine and faith of the Church, which rests wholly upon the one
Christ? In him you are to be one if you are Christians at all; you
must harmoniously praise him, according to your individual gifts. No
one can possibly possess the Holy Spirit if he does not regard Christ
as the Lord, much less if he call him accursed. Destroy the
foundation and you destroy all; there will be no God, no Spirit, and
all your claims, teaching and works are naught. You must recognize
and be governed by the fact that either Christ must be received and
believed in as the one true Lord, and praised and glorified as such,
or else he will be cursed; between these alternatives is no medium."