High Church Claims of Darbyism—The Walworth-Sheffield Discipline
Scarcely was the great disruption consummated when, in the year 1851, a pamphlet appeared that stands absolutely alone for the fearless independence with which it criticises Brethrenism from within. It bore the title of Unity, a Fragment and a Dialogue, and appeared under the initials of Captain Percy Hall.[1]
Hall’s indictment may be comprised under three heads. He challenged the Brethren’s assumption that they alone assembled on Divine warrant; he denied that their ministry was strictly Scriptural, or that it was even essentially better than the ministry of other churches; and he charged them with neglect of the authority of the New Testament in their abjuration of all recognised government.
Hall lived to see the conceptions he denounced attain an ever more and more tyrannical sway over the mind of Darbyism; and his strictures are amply confirmed by an acquaintance with the system during the later years of Darby’s life. It will be convenient to illustrate Hall’s thesis from this standpoint.
The Exclusive Brethren were High Churchmen of the most pronounced type. No Anglo-Catholic could
- ↑ I infer that Hall had not yet cast in his lot with Darby’s party, but his complaints apply to both sections of the Brethren.
