In these last words—prophetic, alas! of the writer’s party—we most fully concur; but what may be the meaning of Mr. Darby, when he says that the “government of bodies in an authorized way” brings confusion and Popery, we may conjecture, but he has not told us. To those who know of no authorized way but the Word of God, such an expression sounds strange; for they know and bear witness to the fact, that there is an authorized way that brings order, for our “God is not the author of confusion, but of order, as in all the churches.” There is, however, a confusion worse confounded, wherever an unauthorized power comes in, and usurps the power and authority of that which ought to be recognized—an unseen hand, that breaks in pieces, but yet shields the person who uses it. This is confusion and tyranny, that contains some of the worst features of Papal jesuitism. We leave it to others to comment on the “principle of unity with his presence” here spoken of, in the light of the sad and sorrowful events in Plymouth, which had preceded it only a few months; but this we know, that the presence of Jesus, the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is holy, is to be found—whether in the church or in the individual—with the humble and contrite spirit that trembles at the word, and nowhere else. It is not for man to bring railing accusations: he should seek ever to be guided by that holy and humble spirit, which led the Archangel to say to an adversary “The Lord rebuke thee,” and to say no more. We arc all servants to one master, to whom alike we stand or fall; but it is surely our place, to point out wherein a teacher in the Church of Christ turns aside from the Lord’s highway of truth, and builds again that which he once destroyed; and this not so much on his own account as for the sake of many who, in proportion to his influence, will be led by him. We remember Mr. Darby’s remarks on the blinding influence of a wrong course upon the soul, which deserve to be weighed and pondered by himself and by all. Writing of those opposed to him in this first Plymouth controversy, he says,
“There is another work often incomprehensible to one not under its influence, and that is an incapacity to discern right and wrong, an incapacity to see evil where even the mere natural conscience would discern, and an upright conscience reject at once. I speak of this incapacity in true saints; the truth is, the soul, when under this influence, is not at all in the presence of God, and sees every thing in the light of the object that governs it. The influence of the enemy has supplanted and taken the place of conscience.”[1]
- ↑ See Narrative of Facts, p. 10.
