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ment, poffeffes fome decided judgment in favour of the doctrine and government established in it. By him therefore it cannot be confidered to be a matter of indifference, whether men believe that doctrine, or fubmit to that government, or not.

If he believe himself to be in the truth, he must of course think those who differ from him in opinion to be in error. And whilst he makes all due allowlowance for those who differ from him; (and large allowances will be made, when, to borrow an idea from Lord BACON, it is confidered, that the human mind takes fuch plies from education, and a thousand other caufes, that even wife and good men rarely think exactly alike upon any fpeculative fubject whatever;) he will nevertheless conclude, if he be confiftent with his profeffion, that where there is a standard for the regulation of human judgment on Divine subjects, two oppofite opinions upon them cannot be true.

There is indeed, we are forry to think, a wild fectarian fpirit growing up in this country, which, if not properly counteracted, will work to the utter fubverfion of its conftitution. For (as it has been excellently observed by a late writer, whose opinion I am proud to think perfectly correfponds with my own on this fubject) "fects in religion and parties

in the state originate in general from fimilar principles. A fect is, in fact, a revolt against the authority of the church, just as a faction is against the authority of the state; or, in other words, a fect is a faction in the church, as a faction is a fect in the state: and the fpirit which refuses obedience to the one, is equally ready to refift the other."* A pofition which will not be controverted, but by thofe who feel themfelves indifpofed to admit the regular establishment of authority in either case.

But upon this head, it is to be feared, it may be faid, "Iliacos intra muros peccatur." What from the loose writing of fome of the clergy, and the general filence of the body, upon the constitution of the Christian church, the fubject is fo grown out of knowledge, as to have loft almost universally its influence upon, the mind. Afk an ignorant man, why he feparates from the church, his anfwer probably will be, that he lives in a land of liberty, where he has a right to worship GoD in the way he thinks proper. Ask a man of reading and understanding, and he will quote refpectable authority for the fame opinion: whereas both one and the other might, it is probable, have continued members of the church,

BOUCHER on the American Revolution. Difcourse II.

had they been taught to form a correct notion of it. But when they have been led to confider the church as a word of general and indifcriminate application, and religion itself as a fubject of mere private opinion, independent of all authority; it is not to be expected that they fhould feel difpofed to restrain a licence, of which, from the latitudinarian way of thinking and acting, in which they have been educated, they conceive themselves born in rightful poffeffion.

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The minister of the church however, who prays constantly against schifm, fhould in confequence think it is duty to prevent Chriftians, as far as may be, from falling into fo dangerous a fin. And whilst he remembers of what fpirit a Chriftian ought to be, the means made ufe of by him for the purpose wil be no other than what a Chriftian ought to employ. "Following," (to make ufe of the words of the celebrated Mr. LOCKE) "the example of the PRINCE of Peace; who fent out his foldiers to the fubduing of nations, and gathering them into his church, not armed with the fword, or other inftruments of force, but accoutred in that best armour, the Gospel of peace, and the exemplary holinefs of Chriftian converfation."

Without pronouncing sentence therefore upon, or disturbing, those who are without the church, his

object will be to preferve those that still remain in it. This he will do, by enabling them to form correct notions of the nature and constitution of the Christian church; and by giving them fuch an explanation from time to time of its fervices, as may produce in them a rational attachment to its communion. Confidering the church as a fociety, which has GOD for its founder, and Chriftian faith as the offspring of Divine revelation, he will regard the varying opinions of mankind upon those subjects, rather as proofs of the weakness and incapacity of the human mind, than as illustrations of the truth. At the fame time, therefore, that he is defirous of laying no unneceffary restraint upon human judgment in religious fubjects; he will take care to point out the standard by which it should be regulated; a standard which draws the line between faith and credulity; between a fober inquiry after truth, accompanied with a proper respect for authority, and that licentiousness of opinion which knows no authority but its own; in a word, between that liberty with which CHRIST has made us free, and the liberty which the natural man is at all times disposed to make for himself.

But the clergy, fome individuals of the body at least, have still more to answer for on this fubject.

A freedom of opinion on church matters has led, as it might be expected, to a freedom of practice. Whilst some by their writings have put the establishment of the church, as it were, quite out of fight; others by their conduct have openly withdrawn Christians from it, by becoming, in fome cafes, officiating ministers in the places of public worship independent of epifcopal jurisdiction; in others, by their attendance at places of worship which are in an actual state of feparation from the established church of their country. How fuch conduct is confiftent with the established government of the church; how the circumstance of a minifter of the church taking upon himself to preach in a place of worship unlicensed by the bishop, is to be reconciled with canonical obligation;* with what propriety fuch a minister can, in the liturgy of the church, pray against fchifm in the place where he is in the actual commiffion of the fin; are points upon which I feel myself

If the oath of canonical obedience mean any thing, it means obedience to the bishop according to the canons of the church. Taking it in this light, I do not fee how thofe of the clergy, who renounce epifcopal jurifdiction, by officiating in, or attending in direct defiance of the canons, at places of worship feparated from the establishment, can be fecure from the charge of at leaft virtual perjury.

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