Notes:
Sermon 75: On Schism
Talk of separation of the Methodists from the Church of England would not down either amongst certain Anglicans who feared it or many Methodists who would be content with nothing less. In both groups, the terms ‘separation’ and ‘schism’ were understood as synonymous. Wesley continued strenuously to deny any intention of separation, and effectively to block the designs of his own separatists. His own ideas about schism were, however, both interesting and unconventional and, finally, it seemed imperative that he expound them, first to his own people as an antidote to internal strife, and then to any others who might welcome yet another profession of his own Anglican loyalties. This must have been a recent project in his mind, since we have no record of his using 1 Cor. 12:25 as a sermon text before or after.
This is yet another sermon written on the run; its postscript places and dates it at ‘Newcastle-under-Lyme, March 30, 1786’. The Journal also places him at Newcastle on that date, and the diary records that afternoon’s sequence as ‘dinner, sermon, letters’. Clearly, however, this sermon was not much more than an extra chore within the larger programme of an eighty-two-year-old evangelist. It was promptly published in the May and June issues of the Arminian Magazine for 1786 (IX.238-44, 293-98), without a title but numbered as ‘Sermon XXII’ (and as a sequel to the sermon ‘On Divine Providence’; see No. 67). The title, ‘On Schism’, was added when it was reprinted in SOSO, VI.191-210, and its placement as a sequel to ‘Of the Church’ is logical and clear. It was not reprinted in Wesley’s lifetime.
03:059 On Schism1 Corinthians 12:25
That there might be no schism in the body.
11. If there be any word in the English tongue as ambiguous and indeterminate in its meaning as the word ‘church’, it is one that is nearly allied to it, the word ‘schism’. It has been the subject of innumerable disputes for several hundred years; and almost innumerable books have been written concerning it in every part of the Christian world. A very large share of these have been published in our country; particularly during the last century, and the beginning of the present. And persons of the strongest understanding and the most consummate learning have exhausted all their strength upon the question, both in conversation and writing. This has appeared to be more necessary than ever since the grand separation of the reformed from the Romish Church. This is a charge which the members of that Church never fail to bring against all that separate from her; and which consequently has employed the thoughts and pens of the most able disputants on both sides. And those of each side have generally, when they entered into the field, been secure of victory; supposing the strength of their arguments was so great that it was impossible for reasonable men to resist them.
22. But it is observable that exceeding little good has been done by all these controversies. Very few of the warmest and ablest disputants have been able to convince their opponents. After all that could be said, the Papists are Papists and the Protestants are Protestants still. And the same success has attended those who have so vehemently disputed about separation from the Church of England. Those who separated from her were eagerly charged with schism: they as eagerly denied the charge. And scarce any were able to convince their opponents, either on one side or the other.
Richard Baxter had emphatically denied, as in ‘Catholic Unity’ (1657), Works, IV. 652-53, the charge of schism leveled against those who differed from and defied bishops and kings who had themselves, in his view, led the church astray. From the other side, however, Robert South, ‘the scourge of fanatics’, fiercely attacked all Puritans and, later, Nonconformists as schismatics; cf. Sermons (1844), Vol. I (Nos. IV, XXI), Vol. II (Nos. XVII, XVIII), Vol. III (‘Posthumous Sermons’, No. IV), and Vol. IV (Nos. XXIV, XXXIII). See also Irène Simon, Three Restoration Divines, ch. IV, sect., ‘Robert South’, pp. 238-43. Wesley would have known the article on ‘Schism’ in Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, which lists the twenty-four schisms that the Roman Catholics reckon as having occurred, including ‘the English schism’. Chambers himself lists as schismatics all ‘nonconformists, viz., the presbyterians, independents, anabaptists, who contend for a further reformation’.
303:0603. One great reason why this controversy has been so unprofitable, why so few of either side have been convinced, is this: they seldom agreed as to the meaning of the word concerning which they disputed. And if they did not fix the meaning of this, if they did not define the term before they began disputing about it, they might continue the dispute to their lives’ end without getting one step forward; without coming a jot nearer to each other than when they first set out.
44. Yet it must be a point of considerable importance, or St. Paul would not have spoken so seriously of it. It is therefore highly needful that we should consider,
First, the nature, and
Secondly, the evil of it.
11I.1. It is the more needful to do this because among the numberless books that have been written upon the subject, both by the Romanists and Protestants, it is difficult to find any that define it in a scriptural manner. The whole body of Roman Catholics define schism, ‘a separation from the Church of Rome’; and almost all our own writers define it, ‘a separation from the Church of England’. Thus both the one and the other set out wrong, and stumble at the very threshold. This will easily appear to any that calmly consider the several texts wherein the word ‘schism’ occurs, from the whole tenor of which it is manifest that it is not a separation from any church (whether general or particular, whether the catholic or any national church) but a separation in a church.
22. Let us begin with the first verse wherein St. Paul makes use of the word. It is the tenth verse of the first chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians. The words are, ‘I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms (the original word is σχίσματα) among you.’
In the Notes for 1 Cor. 1:10, Wesley defines ‘schism’ as ‘alienation of affection’ within a congregation and asks, ‘Is this word ever taken in any other sense in Scripture?’ Evidence of Wesley’s preoccupations with tasks other than proofreading maybe seen in the fact that in the texts of both AM and SOSO, VI.196-97, his printers had printed χισματα instead of σχίσματα, and Wesley had left both instances uncorrected.
33. Of what nature this schism at Corinth was is still more clearly
determined (if anything can be more clear) by the words that immediately follow.
‘Now this I say’—this is the schism of which I speak: you are divided into
separate parties, some of you speaking in favour of one, some of another
preacher—‘Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of
Cephas’ (or Peter).
Ver. 12.
44. The second place where the Apostle uses this word is in the eighteenth
verse of the eleventh chapter of this Epistle. ‘When ye come together in the
church’, the Christian congregation, ‘I hear that there are divisions’ (the
original word here also is σχίσματα, ‘schisms’) ‘among you.’ But what were these
‘schisms’? The Apostle immediately tells you: ‘When you come together’,
professing your design is ‘to eat of the Lord’s Supper, everyone taketh before
another his own supper,’
Ver. 20[-21].
55. May it not be observed (to make a little digression here for the sake of those who are troubled with needless scruples on this head) that the sin which the Apostle charges on the communicants at Corinth in this chapter is usually quite misunderstood. It was precisely this and nothing else, ‘the taking one before another 03:062his own supper’; and in such a shocking manner that while ‘one was hungry, another was drunken’. By doing this, he says, ‘ye eat and drink’ (not ‘damnation’—a vile mistranslation of the word
I.e., κρίμα, a forensic term meaning ‘judgment’ or at worst ‘condemnation’. In the Vulgate, Jerome had translated it as ‘iudicium’. In his own translation for the Notes Wesley had already ‘corrected’ the AV’s reading, ‘damnation’, to ‘judgment’.
1 Cor. 11:29-30.
66. But to return. It deserves to be seriously remarked that in this chapter
the Apostle uses the word ‘heresies’ as exactly equivalent with the word
‘schisms’. ‘I hear’, says he, ‘that there are schisms among you, and I partly
believe it.’
Ver. 18. Ver. 19.
77. The third, and the only remaining place in this Epistle wherein the
Apostle uses this word, is the twenty-fifth verse of the twelfth chapter; where
speaking of the church (he seems to mean the church universal, the whole body of
Christ) he observes, ‘God hath tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honour to that part which lacked, that there might be no schism in 03:063the body.’
Ver. 24-25.
1 Cor. 12:25-26.
88. But there seems to be one considerable objection against the supposing
‘heresy’ and ‘schism’ to mean the same thing. It is said, St. Peter, in the
second chapter of his Second Epistle, takes the word ‘heresies’ in a quite
different sense. His words are: ‘There shall be among you false teachers who
will bring in damnable (or destructive) heresies, denying the Lord that bought
them.’
Ver. 1.
I.e., ‘faux docteurs, qui introduiront des sectes pernicieuses…’ (the Geneva version, 1560).
99. I shall be thankful to anyone who will point to me any other place in the inspired writings where this word ‘schism’ is to be found. I remember only these three.
Wesley is relying, of course, on memory, not a concordance. Three other uses of the Greek σχίσμα occur in John (7:43; 9:16; 10:19), each translated ‘division’ (thus supporting his case); there are also two other instances referring to a ‘rent’ in a garment (Matt. 9:16; Mark 2:21). There were at least seventeen New Testament concordances available in Wesley’s time (of varying degrees of completeness) from John Marbeck (1550) to Matthew Pilkington (1749). The most popular of these were John Downame’s (1630, with its latest edn. in 1773) and Alexander Cruden’s (1738). But Wesley’s grasp of Scripture amounted to his being something of a concordance, viva voce—and this at age eighty-two!
10[II.] 10.
An omission here (by Wesley or his printers) in the order of subdivisions. In Preface, §4 two main heads are announced and I.1-9 has dealt with the nature of schism. Here he turns to his second main head ‘the evil of [schism]’ without a proper indication.
1111. It is evil in itself. To separate ourselves from a body of living Christians with whom we were before united is a grievous breach of the law of love. It is the nature of love to unite us together, and the greater the love the stricter the union. And while this continues in its strength nothing can divide those whom love has united. It is only when our love grows cold that we can think of separating from our brethren. And this is certainly the case with any who willingly separate from their Christian brethren. The pretences for separation may be innumerable, but want of love is always the real cause; otherwise they would still hold the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Eph. 4:3.
Heb. 13:1.
Cf. 1 John 4:7.
John 15:12.
Cf. John 13:35.
1212. And as such a separation is evil in itself, being a breach of brotherly love, so it brings forth evil fruit; it is naturally productive of the most mischievous consequences. It opens a door to all unkind tempers, both in ourselves and others. It leads directly to a whole train of evil surmisings, to severe and uncharitable judging of each other. It gives occasion to offence, to anger, and resentment, perhaps in ourselves as well as in our brethren; which, if not presently stopped, may issue in bitterness, malice, and settled hatred; creating a present hell wherever they are found, as a prelude to hell eternal.
1313. But the ill consequences of even this species of schism do not terminate in the heart. Evil tempers cannot long remain within before they are productive of outward fruit. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Matt. 12:34.
See Prov. 31:26.
1414. From evil words, from talebearing, backbiting, and evil-speaking, how many evil works will naturally flow! Anger, jealousy, envy, wrong tempers of every kind, do not vent themselves merely in words, but push men continually to all kind of ungodly and unrighteous actions. A plentiful harvest of all the works of darkness may be expected to spring from this source; whereby in the end thousands of souls—and not a few of those who once walked in the light of God’s countenance—may be turned from the way of peace, and finally drowned in everlasting perdition.
1515. Well might our blessed Lord say, ‘Woe unto the world because of offences.’ Yet ‘it must needs be that offences will come.’
Cf. Matt. 18:7.
See No. 42, ‘Satan’s Devices’, §5 proem and n.
See Matt. 24:12.
Matt.5:6.
Gal.5:22; Eph. 5:9.
Gal. 5:19.
1616. And what a grievous stumbling-block must these things be to those who are without! To those who are strangers to religion! Who have neither the form nor the power of godliness!
See 2 Tim. 3:5.
1717. But perhaps such persons will say: ‘We did not do this willingly; we were constrained to separate from that society. because we could not continue therein with a clear conscience; we could not continue without sin. I was not allowed to continue 03:067therein without breaking a commandment of God.’ If this was the case you could not be blamed for separating from that society. Suppose, for instance, you were a member of the Church of Rome, and you could not remain therein without committing idolatry, without worshipping of idols, whether images or saints and angels; then it would be your bounden duty to leave that community, totally to separate from it. Suppose you could not remain in the Church of England without doing something which the Word of God forbids, or omitting something which the Word of God positively commands; if this were the case (but blessed be God it is not) you ought to separate from the Church of England. I will make the case my own. I am now, and have been from my youth, a member and a minister of the Church of England. And I have no desire nor design to separate from it till my soul separates from my body. Yet if I was not permitted to remain therein without omitting what God requires me to do, it would then become meet, and right, and my bounden duty
An echo of the prayer before the Sanctus, BCP, Communion.
See 1 Cor. 9:17.
1 Cor. 9:16.
1803:06818. I have spoke the more explicitly upon this head, because it is so little understood; because so many of those who profess much religion, nay, and really enjoy a measure of it, have not the least conception of this matter, neither imagine such a separation to be any sin at all. They leave a Christian society with as much unconcern as they go out of one room into another. They give occasion to all this complicated mischief, and wipe their mouth, and say they have done no evil!
See Prov. 30:20.
1919. I entreat you, therefore, my brethren—all that fear God and have a desire to please him, all that wish to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man
See Acts 24:16.
See Col. 3:3.
2 Pet. 2:5.
2020. But if you are afraid, and that not without reason, of ‘schism’, improperly so called; how much more afraid will you be, if your conscience is tender, of schism in the proper scriptural sense! O beware, I will not say of forming, but of countenancing or abetting any parties in a Christian society! Never encourage, much less cause either by word or action, any division therein. In the nature of things ‘there must be heresies (divisions) among you;’
1 Cor. 11:19.
See Prov. 17:14.
π; source unidentified.
Heb. 12:14.
1 Pet. 3:11.
Rom. 12:21.
2121. Happy is he that attains the character of a peacemaker in the church of God. Why should not you labour after this? Be not content not to stir up strife, but do all that in you lies to prevent or quench the very first spark of it. Indeed it is far easier to prevent the flame from breaking out than to quench it afterwards. However, be not afraid to attempt even this: the God of peace is on your side. He will give you acceptable words, and will send them to the heart of the hearers. Noli dissidere: noli discedere,
Kempis, Imitation, III.xxxvii. The whole sentence may be translated: ‘Wait on the Lord, conduct thyself manfully and be of good courage: do not despond, do not fall away, but constantly offer up both body and soul to God’s glory. In Wesley s translation of Kempis (1735), this quotation appears in III.xxxv. See also the last paragraph of Wesley’s letter to ‘Various Clergymen’, Apr. 19, 1764.
Ibid., I.vii, where Kempis reads ‘…bone voluntati tue’ (‘Do what lieth in thy power and God will assist thy good will’). Cf. also No. 85, ‘On Working Out Our Own Salvation’, I.1-4, III.6-7.
See Gal. 6:9.
Newcastle-under-Lyme
March 30, 1786
Place and date as in AM.
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Entry Title: Sermon 75: On Schism