be really the liberty with which, under the Gospel dispensation, we have been made free, it will, I think, puzzle the most able of the declaimers on this popular subject, to give a reason why such a society, as that of the Church of Christ, should ever have been established in the world.

The preceding statement proceeds on the supposition that there is at this time. such a sin as that of SCHISM actually existing in the Christian world. To prove this, there must be evidence in Scripture sufficient to determine what that particular sin is; and under what circumstances Christians are chargeable with it. Should not this be the case, we are left without any authorized standard of judgment on this important subject: consequently any attempt to bring the reader to a decisive conclusion upon it, must be a fruitless undertaking. For, until we have some established rule by which to measure; what does, or what does not, constitute a deviation from it, is not to be ascertained.

It is, then, on that evidence furnished by scripture on this subject, confirmed

as it appears to be by the concurring testimony of the Church, from the days of the apostles down to the present time, that we take our stand on this occasion : considering that the times in which we live render it more immediately necessary, that the subject here brought forward to notice, should be clearly understood by all Christian professors.

Whilst then we refrain from calling in question either the sincerity or the piety of any who differ from us in opinion, and readily subscribe to that principle, by which every Christian professor is justified in maintaining that religious system, which he in his conscience believes to be true; we trust we may be allowed to take advantage of the same principle, by. maintaining, in our character of Ministers of the Church of England, what we consider to be the apostolical ground on which that Church stands; with the express view of acting "according to our bounden duty, by doing all that lieth in us, to bring" all members of the Church" unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness

of age in Christ, that there might be no place left among us, either for error in religion, or for viciousness in life." (Ordination of Priests.) When, then, it is considered, that SCHISM, in its natural progress, is like the letting out of water, which runs till it has reached the lowest ground, and can run no further; it must certainly be admitted to be at least justifiable in a Minister of the Church of England, by awakening the attention of her members to the present subject, to prevent, as far as may be, more ground being added to that which has been already lost to her

cause.

The propriety of the preceding allusion, which the progress of schism has, in all ages of the world, sufficiently demonstrated, has lately been most strikingly exemplified in the case of the Wesleyan Methodists, as they are called; that most numerous and extensively spreading sect of the present day.

When the late J. Wesley, to whom we give credit for piety, zeal, and good intention, first laid the plan for his religious

assemblies, his design, there is good reason to think, was not to promote separation from the Church of England, but to furnish additional means for the more spiritual edification of her members. With this idea in his mind, the services of his meetings were not suffered to interfere with those of the established Church; with which he always professed himself to be in communion; and, as a proof of which, he seldom failed, when occasion offered, to partake in her sacraments; a practice to which a great body of his followers for many years regularly adhered. But had J. Wesley studied with more attention the history of human nature, he might not, it is probable, have been himself so deceived on this subject, and have become SO instrumental in deceiving others, as subsequent facts have proved that he was. For, in such case, he would have known what the restless disposition of the natural man is, when once let loose from established order; and consequently could not have failed to foresee that his partial secession from the Church of England, in whatever plausible reasons it ori

ginated, would ultimately terminate, as it has at length done, contrary to his own expressed intention, in a total separation from her communion. Whilst the once comparatively respectable ministry of J. Wesley, who was himself confessedly a learned, and, in some respects, able divine, has now degenerated into the ministry of (for the most part) a set of low, ignorant, and self-sufficient enthusiasts; who, in their itinerating course, are at this time. industriously pushing themselves into every parish, into which they can gain admission; creeping into houses, and leading captive those silly persons who are weak enough to be led captive by them; and studiously bringing into contempt, at least in the minds of their deluded followers, the more regular ministry of the Establish

ment.

But, what is particularly to be remarked in the case of the Wesleyan Methodists, and proves the never-failing progress of schism, is, that their separation from the Church of England has, from their own acknowledgment, been a separation without a justifiable cause. For, in the more