The object immediately before me at prefent is to strengthen and fecure that ground, which your firft letter seems defigned to shake, by bringing forward to the reader many of thofe plausible objections to our church establishment, which have long fince received repeated and fufficient anfwers. That the difference of opinion upon this controverted subject should now be revived among us, is not much to be wondered at, when we confider the temper of the times in which we live; a temper which (I am forry to fay) difpofes man for nothing fo much as for the overthrow of all established opinions.

It fhall only for the present be observed, that tole ration is the act of the ftate, not of the church, When, therefore, every diffenter from our eftablishment lives in actual poffeffion of that rational offspring of the enlightened policy of this country, to represent the church of England as being " of an intolerant Spirit," because fuch of her clergy who know any thing of the nature of the Chriftian church, as a Divinely-instituted fociety, are obliged to confider those who are not regularly connected with it by covenant to be unpoffeffed of any covenanted title to the promises made to it; is to make use of language, if not perfectly unintelligible, at least in a

ftriking degree incorrect; as calculated to confound two subjects, in themselves perfectly distinct.

The idea now industriously propagated, which tends to the annihilation of all order and government in the church; that, provided the doctrines of Christianity be taught, it matters not to what society of Christian profeffors we are attached; is an idea that never received countenance from any fober thinking Christian for the first fifteen hundred years of the Chriftian ærá. Had it been broached in the primitive days, it would have been confidered as a vifionary and wild notion, incompatible with the exiftence of any regular establishment, on earth. As fuch it would have been univerfally reprobated, and the maintainers of it condemned by the feverest ecclefiaftical cenfure. Yet, in the comprehensive and adventurous wisdom of modern times, this is confidered as a kind of neceffary article of faith; and those are branded with the name of bigots who do not hold it. Profeffing myself to be one of those bigots, and being perfectly fatisfied with the company in which I am placed, my only hope is, that I may be thought worthy to continue in it. You seem to me, Sir, to be fond of putting cafes, which, however suitable you may fuppofe them to be to fome particular views

In this fpirit

of your own, are not always relevant or applicable to the matters immediately before you. you afk, which is of moft confequence,

"The out

ward polity of the church, or those sacred verities, for the fake of which that outward polity was inftituted?" This is a queftion, which, though not proper to be asked, no minister can for a moment be at a loss to answer.

ST. PAUL directs his difciples to "obey them that had the rule over them, and fubmit themselves," &c.; Heb. xiii. 17. Obedience, therefore, to ecclefiaftical government is one doctrine of Christianity. You will fay, it is not a doctrine of effential confequence, like a fundamental article of faith: but that is more, perhaps, than any man is authorised to say. The only difference that I can fee between a fundamental, and what you confider in this cafe to be a non-fundamental verity is, that the one is an article of faith, the other of practice; but both are effential to falvation, as being grounded upon the fame Divine authority. Thus much may be faid in reference to the parties concerned. With refpect to the cause of Christianity itself, there can be no doubt that the articles of faith and the doctrine of fubmiffion to ec

clefiaftical authority are both, in their way, effential

to its advancement: the one, confidered as the treafure to be preferved; the other, as the guardian appointed to preserve it. It is not for us, therefore, to weigh, in the imperfect fcale of human reafon, articles of faith against the doctrine of Divine ordinances, with the view of regulating our obedience by the idea of importance which our judgments may annex to either, feparately confidered; but to place the example of ZACHARIAS and ELIZABETH before our eyes, who are celebrated in the Gospel story for "walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the LORD blameless."

Without, therefore, attempting to determine, (what, perhaps, at this diftant day, is not to be determined) upon the precife form of government, which the Apoftles adapted to the circumftances of the infant church; I hefitate not to affirm, upon the authority of ST. CLEMENT, (authority little inferior to that of ST. PAUL) that epifcopal government was a characteristic mark of the Chriftian church, as foon as it had acquired any regular establishment. And, although the language of the Apostles has by fome been confidered as not fufficiently decided on this point, yet, according to the tenour of the answer given by CHARLES the First to HENDERSON, there does

not appear to be any authority more proper to determine the sense of facred fcripture, than the authority of the primitive church. The paffage on which this opinion of CLEMENT is grounded, is taken from his Epistle to the Corinthians, written, it is fuppofed, before the destruction of Jerufalem; confequently within forty years after our LORD's ascension, and 'certainly before the death of ST. JOHN; an epistle, held in such estimation by the early Christians, as to be made a part of the public fervice of the primitive church: from this paffage it appears that the church, at the time of writing that epiftle, had affumed the fame precise form of government, under which it has ever fince continued, and by which it is distinguished in this country. To this form of government, in obedience to the Apoftolic direction, I hold it to be my duty, as a Christian, to fubmit.

Those who differ from me in opinion, I leave to themselves; not in the character of a bigot, pronouncing fentence on those who are without the church, as you have thought fit to reprefent me; but in the character of a minifter of the church, who, being directed by our liturgy, to pray constantly against fchifm, muft think it his duty to prevent