.

jorum nomine pofito, non putant fieri poffe ut aut illi plus fapiant, quia minores vocantur, aut illi defipuerint, quia majores nominantur."-LACT. Div. Inft. ii. 7.

But whilft the argument is thus ftrong in favour of the freedom of human judgment, and against all implicit submission to authority, it is neceffary to difcriminate in its application.

Subjects of fpeculation and experiment open to man a boundless field for enquiry and improvement, and were defigned to exercise his faculties, and enlarge his understanding. Upon these subjects, he may be expected to grow in wifdom, in confequence of its being in his power to profit by the experience of those who have gone before him. His knowledge, therefore, upon thefe fubjects, becomes confirmed in proportion to its advancement.

But in matters of revelation and fact, the conviction of his understanding decreases in proportion as he' is removed from the time in which that revelation and fact took place; and depends lefs upon the exertion of his rational powers, than upon the credibility of the testimony with which they are respectively accompanied. There is a reafon, therefore, for deference to authority being paid in the one cafe,

which does not exist in the other; and fo long as that

deference is paid with judgment, the cause of truth and knowledge cannot fail to be advanced by it. For the idea of a progreffive faith and progreffive hiftory is attended with equal abfurdity; because no exertion of the mental powers can produce an alteration in either cafe. Revelation, being the declared, not the imagined, will of God, muft, what mifrepresentations foever it may be liable to, continue to be what it. was at its original delivery; and facts which once actually took place, can never ceafe to be facts, whatever attempts may be made to miftate or fupprefs them.

The fact to which our attention is now directed, is the establishment of the church by CHRIST, the founder of it. That fuch a fact did take place, is generally admitted. Indeed, to difallow it, would be to renounce all faith in hiftory. The difference of opinion that has unfortunately prevailed with refpect to the form of its government, it is not my prefent purpose to reconcile; for I am now addreffing myself to those who are fuppofed to entertain no difference of opinion on that fubject. What is required of the clergy of the church, therefore, is, that their language and conduct should correspond with the judgment which they have formed. Perfuaded as they muft, or at least ought to be, that the

church, of which they are ministers, is built upon the foundation of the Apoftles; that its ordinances are of Divine appointment; and that, confequently, it is that visible society to which Christians ought to be gathered, for the purpose of carrying on the work of falvation; it cannot be a matter of indifference to them, whether communion with this church be preferved, or not. Whatever those who have unhappily feparated from it may think, or perfuade themselves upon the fubject, they who have undertaken a commiffion in it can, it is prefumed, have but one opinion upon it; they must think with IGNATIUS, that "without the bishop, it is neither lawful to baptize, nor to confecrate the feast of love;" and that "that eucharist only was in the primitive church accounted firm and good, which was confecrated by the bishop, or one whom he appointed."*

In the liturgy of the church we pray against fchifm. If, by their writing or conduct, the clergy at the fame time give encouragement to it; will they not, in fo doing, be thought to be acting in contradiction to the profeffion which they have made? But this,

Εκείνη βεβαια ευχαρισία

*IGNAT. Epift. ad Smyr. cap. 8. ηγεισθώ, η υπο τον επίσκοπον εσα, η ω αν αυτός επιτρέψη.Ibid. Ουκ εξόν εστιν χωρίς το επισκοπου ετε βαπτίζειν, στο αγαπην ποιειν.

ARY

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OF TH

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367

TO THE CLERGY.

it is to be feared, is the cafe with all thofe, who, instead of pointing out to the laity the danger attendant upon their officiously meddling with the ministerial office, and the duty of their fubmitting to those teachers, who by authority are fet over them, by their loose writing or irregular practice lead them to the very oppofite conclufion. And what reafonable hope can be entertained, that the unity of the church will be in any degree preserved, whilst those whofe office it is to preserve it, become the inftruments of its diffolution.

"Much charitable allowance" (a learned bishop of the present day has well obferved)" is to be made for the errors of the laity, upon points, to which it is hardly to be expected they should turn their attention of their own accord; and upon which, for fome time past, they have been very imperfectly inftructed. Diffenters are to be judged with much candour, and with every poffible allowance for the prejudices of education. But for those who have been nurtured in the bosom of the church, and have gained admiffion to the ministry, if, from a mean compliance with the humour of the age, or ambitious of the fame of liberality of fentiment, (for under that fpecious name a profane indifference is made to pafs

for an accomplishment) they affect to join in the difavowal of the authority which they fhare, or are filent when the validity of their Divine commiffion is called in queftion; for any, I hope they are few, who hide this weakness of faith, this poverty of religious principle, under the attire of a gown and caffock, they are, in my estimation, little better than infidels in masquerade."*

It is not, indeed, to be wondered at, that the opinions of the modern clergy should become less settled upon church matters than they have been; fince the authority of a HoOKER, a HICKES, and a LESLEY, is by many confidered to be in a manner fuperfeded by that of an HOADLEY, a WARBURTON, and a PALEY. It is a very common thing for profeffors of the law to be feed for the fupport of what they know to be a wrong caufe. Would charity allow us to suppose that minifters of the church could ever act upon a fimilar plan, it appears to me, that the three writers above-mentioned would have deferved well of their fuppofed clients; for, were I a diffenter from the church, I should seek for no argument to justify my feparation, which might not be fairly drawn from their respective writings.

* Bishop HORSLEY'S Charge to his Clergy, p. 36