modern publications feem calculated to promote What he fays, therefore, on the fubject of church government, refpects the government of the church of England: and when he says, no one certain form is neceffary to be established in all churches, he in fact means only, what our Twentieth Article was defigned to exprefs, that every church has a right to decree its own rites and ceremonies; in other words, to settle its own form of ecclefiaftical polity. But this applies to established national churches, confidered as independent of each other, so far as respects their particular forms of regimen. In extending HOOKER's meaning, fo far as to make it applicable to those societies of Chriftians, which have broken away from the national church, by confidering them as fo many churches under their respective forms of government; you make ufe of his evidence for the promotion of an object, the very opposite to that which he had in view in delivering it; and thus convert a most powerful advocate for conformity to the church of England, into a countenancer of wilful feparation from it.

I fhall trouble you with only a few additional obfervations on this head, before I pass on. You mention the gentle and Catholic fpirit of the church

of England; in oppofition to which you feem to place, page 121, the bigotry and intolerance of those who venture to fay any thing upon the subject of fchifm. This is not a more grofs mifreprefentation than that by which your reader is given to understand, that those who plead for conformity to the church lay down this position, that there is no falvation out of the pale of the church of England. Page 196.

When a man proves too much, it is generally confidered that he has proved nothing. Without making any answer, then, to this extravagant pofition, I fhall only beg to remind you, that the church of England does not tolerate fchifm; fhe both prays against it, and denounces fentence against it. Her ministers, confequently, are bound to preach against it: and were they, with the view of converting fchifmatics, to prove that schism is as damning a fin as murder or adultery, they would not, in fo doing, poffefs one jot more of the spirit of bigotry and intolerance, than Sr. CYPRIAN and ST. AUGUSTINE, and all the ancient fathers of the church, poffeffed, who uniformly in fifted upon that argument.

The church of England, it is true, is both of a gentle and Catholic fpirit, but not in the sense in which

this is too often understood. She poffeffes abundance of moderation and charity towards all who feparate from her. She prays for them, at the fame time that the condemns them. She does not confider focieties of Chriftians separated from her communion in the light in which you fee them, "as churches of the LORD's vineyard," (page 157) but as conventicles of fchifmatics. In that character fhe prays for them, as perfons" that have erred and are deceived, that they may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit and in the bond of peace." And next to praying for perfons who have erred and are deceived, is an honeft endeavour to make them fee the danger of their fituation. If this be done with an earnest defire for their welfare, and in a spirit of meekness, with a wish to restore peace rather than to break and difturb it, fuch an endeavour appears to deserve a reprefentation very different from that which you have annexed to it. For the object in other than to pro.

view, you must know, can be no

mote that charity, which is the grand characteristic of the true Chriftian; that being of one accord and of one mind, (Phil. ii. 2) Chriftians may join together in the fame acts of religious worship, as brethren of the fame LORD: remembering, that if faith and

hope are unproductive of charity, they will never qualify a Christian for heaven.

It fhall be allowed, indeed, that provided the great object of the Christian revelation is attained in the promotion of GoD's honour, and man's falvation, it becomes a matter of trifling confideration, what different plans are adopted for carrying that object into effect. But I have been always taught to think, that the surest way to gain the end, is to adopt the means appointed for the purpose. Had not the establishment of the Christian church been thought neceffary, it never would have received the fanction of Divine authority. Having received that fanction, it becomes the duty of man to conform to it: and there can be no doubt but the caufe of Christianity will profper, in proportion to the attention paid to the plan fet on foot by Divine wifdom for its promotion.

But men are ever apt to conclude that to be right, which feemeth to be fo in their own eyes; and it is not without confiderable difficulty that they can be perfuaded to the contrary. Nevertheless, as in religious matters men cannot err in judgment without hazard to their fouls, it becomes neceffary that pains fhould be taken to enable them to fee their own blindness; and the eye-falve, mentioned in the Reve

lations iii. 18, applied to their eyes, that that may feem to them right, which is really fo.

You fay, page 197, that you "difapprove of felfconstituted authority and self-ordination as much as I can." But is not your attendance on the miniftrations of felf-ordained men, or at least of men not ordained as God has appointed, and the whole tenour, as well as manner, of your writing, calculated to promote both? Provided found doctrine be preached, it seems to be no matter of confideration with you by whom it is preached. Those focieties of Chriftians, which are separated from the communion of the church in this country, you call churches; confequently those who officiate in them must be minifters of the church. But no man taketh the honour of being a minister of CHRIST's church upon himself. He must receive a regular appointment to it from thofe, through whofe hands the evangelical commiffion has been conveyed down to us. This pofition, you, who confider the church of England to be an Apoftolic church, (page 5) by which, I prefume, is to be understood, a church established upon the Apoftolic plan, must admit. ST. PAUL, fpeaking in the character of a minister of the Gofpel, fays, we are ambaffadors for CHRIST." Now the effence of an

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