The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

A human body may not only live, but be healthy, in which one lobe
of the lungs is gone; another may be sickly and die, in which the lungs are
perfect. Nevertheless, the complete lungs are an essential part of a perfect
human' body. We still truly call a man a man, though he may have lost
arms and legs; we still call a hand a hand, though it may have lost a finger,
or be distorted. While, therefore, we freely call systems and men Christian,
though they lack a sound sacramental doctrine, we none the less consider
that doctrine essential to a complete Christian system, and to the perfect
faith of a Christian man. The man who has lost an arm, we love none the
less. If he has lost it by carelessness, we pity his misfortune, yet we do not
hold him free from censure. But, when he insists, that, to have two arms, is
a blemish, and proposes to cut off one of ours, then we resist him.
Somewhere on earth, if the gates of hell have not prevailed against the
Church, there is a Communion whose fellowship involves no departure
from a solitary article of Christian faith--and no man should be willing to
be united with any other Communion. The man who is sure there is no
such Communion is bound to put forth the effort to originate it. He who
knows of no Creed which is true to the Rule of Faith, in all its articles,
should at once prepare one that is. Every Christian is bound either to find a
Church on Earth, pure in its whole faith, or to make one. On the other
hand, he who says that the Church is wrong, confesses in that very
assertion, that if the Church be right, he is an errorist; and that in asking to
share her communion while he yet denies her doctrine, he asks her to
adopt the principle that error is to be admitted to her bosom, for as an
errorist and only as an errorist can she admit him.
Course of Error in the Church.
But the practical result of this principle is one on which there is no
need of speculating; it works in one unvarying way. When error is
admitted into the Church, it will be found that the stages of its progress are
always three. It begins by asking toleration. Its friends say to the majority:
You need not be afraid of us; we are few, and weak; only let us alone; we
shall not disturb the faith of others. The Church has her standards of
doctrine; of course