apostles of Christ. She alone has always been one, by all her members professing one faith, in one communion, under one chief pastor, succeeding St. Peter, to whom Christ committed the charge of his whole flock, and the keys of heaven. She alone has been always holy, and teaching all holiness, by inviting all to holiness, by affording all helps and means of holiness, and by having in all ages innumerable holy ones in her communion. She alone is catholic or universal, by subsisting in all ages, by teaching all nations, and by maintaining all truths. She alone is apostolical, by deriving her doctrine, her communion, her orders and mission, from the apostles of Christ. She alone has converted infidel nations, with their kings, to the faith of Christ; and, to this day, sends her priests and missionaries to all parts of the world, to propagate the kingdom of Christ. She alone has been in all ages illustrated by innumerable miracles, and by the wonderful lives and acts of innumerable saints. All other sects begin by separating from her; their first teachers went out from her, and had before acknowledged her authority; and they were all censured by her at their first appearance. But she never departed or separated from any more ancient church, nor was ever censured by any lawful authority. In a word, she is the great body of christians, descending from the primitive apostolic church. Consequently, she is the one, holy, catholic, and apostolical church."

Doubtless, any competent defender of the English church, in reply to such a writer, would find no great difficulty in disposing of these pretensions, but would easily show that the papacy possesses no mark of the true church, and that all such representations are unfounded and fallacious; while she stands forth in her constitution and history branded with all the prophetic marks of Antichrist. And yet the very same arguments by which the churchman confutes the papist, and clears his own church from the charge of schism, are sufficient to nullify all similar pretensions on her part, and may be used with equal force by protestant dissenters in vindicating themselves from the same charge. She must, therefore, either cease to excommunicate other churches, or acknowledge herself justly

excommunicated by the church of Rome. She must either allow that others may withdraw from her communion without being schismatical, or remain herself under the reproach of a greater schism. To justify herself against the church of Rome, without at the same time justifying dissenting churches, is impossible. Her advocates may therefore take which side of the dilemma they please.

But the claims thus put forth by the anglican and papal churches might have been made, with equal propriety, by the Greek and Syrian churches in the East, who can boast of that long uninterrupted succession of bishops which the former assume as their highest safeguard and glory. And though the Lutheran and other reformed churches on the Continent and in Great Britain make no pretensions on that ground, they might easily adduce others equally defensible and imposing. And thus every church, deeming itself alone right, and denying the apostolicity of all others, the whole of christendom would be made up of incurable schismatics.

If it be again said, that those who separate from the church of England are accused of schism because she is confessedly a branch of the true church of Christ planted in these realms, and there cannot be others within the same limits equally true or equally apostolic, this is nothing more than begging the question in dispute. And if it be modestly added, because in their opinion it is so, that is precisely what the members of all other churches believe and affirm. In every sect there are, no doubt, many who have never seriously examined the point, and could assign no valid reason for their conformity or dissent. But if the enlightened and sound-judging of all persuasions were asked why they prefer their own church or denomination to all others, they would doubtless answer, because they believe it to be, on the whole, most in accordance with the word of God. Every candid person will acknowledge that well-informed men of all communities may be equally sincere and conscientious, and may have taken equal pains to ascertain the right way. If then the conscientious persuasion of one man, or one body of men, be a valid reason for asserting the exclusive aposLolicity of one church, it is equally so in reference to all, unless

the one builds her claim on other grounds to which the rest can have no pretensions. But to adduce such grounds is to shift the enquiry, and to institute a comparison of claims, which, in the absence of infallibility, can be decided only by an appeal to reason and scripture.

It is then surely most absurd for one protestant church to claim an exclusive right to that which all others may claim or possess in common, and the validity of which it is impossible to disprove. It is surely monstrous for the members of one church to deny the legitimacy of others, for reasons which must equally impeach their own; or to rest their exclusive apostolicity on grounds where all others may in like manner take their stand. It resembles the conduct of a semi-barbarous people in eastern Asia, whose chief ruler is styled His Celestial Majesty, and his dominions, the Celestial Empire; as though China was the only region upon earth blessed with the light and dews of heaven! Though distinguished from the rest of mankind by some peculiarities of language and national costume, they are still more remarkable for the superciliousness and contempt with which they treat all other nations. They claim the honours of a national antiquity long anterior to the days of Noah, or the Mosaic creation, traceable through a long series of dynasties and traditions, about as credible as the process of apostolical succession. Thus boasting of their superiority, on some accounts which are very equivocal, and on others in which the foreign barbarians surpass them, their pride and insolence provoke the ridicule and scorn of all civilized and enlightened people, till their real merits are overlooked and denied. Nor can we doubt but the equally absurd pretensions of the high-church party at home, are producing similar effects in the religious world, and would soon bring upon them the scorn and ridicule of all christendom, if it were not for the sacredness of the cause which they identify with those pretensions, and if mankind were as rational and independent in the affairs of religion as in those of civil life.

While, then, episcopalians believe their church comes nearest to the apostolic model, and therefore avow their convictions,

and endeavour to convince others of the fact, let them remember that presbyterians and congregationalists feel the same. Let them cease to hurl against others the charge of schism, which will assuredly rebound upon themselves. But, knowing that all men, and all human systems and institutions, are fallible and imperfect, and need mutual forbearance and concession, let them repudiate the folly and sin of acting the pope, while they disclaim his infallibility, or of excluding others from the bosom of the true church, on grounds which at the same time exclude themselves. Let them respect the integrity, faith, and holiness of dissenting churches, instead of branding them with schism; and bring down the lofty pretensions of clerical ambition to the golden rule of doing as they would be done by. Then, and not till then, will the church of England merit the title she assumes, and receive from other protestant churches those testimonies of christian sympathy and esteem, which, as in the primitive times, ought to be reciprocal.

CHAPTER IV.

On the Conscientiousness of Protestant Dissenters.

IF the church as by law established be the only true church of Christ in these realms, where alone his ordinances can be savingly administered, or the assurance of salvation given, we might expect to find the duty of conforming to it so explicitly enjoined, that no person who truly believes and understands the gospel could fail to know it. It cannot be imagined that a point of duty so essential, involving such fearful consequences, could either be left in the word of God undefined, or be expressed in terms which good men honestly seeking to know the divine will could easily misunderstand. To suppose the contrary would be to impeach the perfection of the christian faith, and to impute to its divine Author an oversight, or a demand, utterly inconsistent with his wisdom and goodness. It is, therefore, evidently assumed by the high-church party, that the will of Christ on this point is so fully and clearly revealed, that conscience and duty need not be opposed, but that every man who sincerely wishes to be a christian must see it to be his duty to conform to the church, unless he be swayed by educational prejudice or schismatically inclined.

The great principles of moral obligation are so clearly stated in the scriptures, and so self-evident, that there never has been, nor can be, any serious mistake or material difference of sentiment respecting them. When the divine law requires us to love God with supreme affection, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, it finds an immediate response in every conscience, and even the least informed and the most degenerate own it to be right.

Men may fail to keep these requirements, and be