out his Father, fo neither do ye, whether prefbyter, deacon, or laick, any thing without the Bishop." "Give heed to your Bishop, that GOD may hearken to you: my foul for theirs who fubject themselves under the obedience of their bishop, prefbyters, and deacons; and let me take my lot with them in the LORD."

The foregoing paffages, to which others might be added, from the writings of IGNATIUS, fpeak fo plainly and decidedly in favour of the government established in the church, and fo directly in condem. nation of all feparation from it, that a particular comment upon them is unneceffary. They fpeak a plain language, expreffive of the fentiments of the holy men who lived in the Apoftolic age; and the general conclufion from them is, that whoever was in communion with the bishop, the fupreme governor of the church upon earth, was in communion with CHRIST, the head of it; and whoever was not in communion with the bishop, was thereby cut off from

* σε Ωσπερ και ο Κύριος ανευ τε Πατρος εδεν ποιει, ετω και υμεις ανευ το Επίσκοπε, μηδε Πρεσβύτερος, μηδε Διάκονος, μηδε 8 λαικος.”. ICNAT. Epift. to the Magnes.

« Τω Επισκόπω προσέχετε, ινα και ο Θεος υμιν' αντιψυχον εγω των υποτασσομένων ζύον Επισκοπων Πρεσβυτερίω, Διακονοις μεθ' αυτων μοι το Mopos DEVOITO EXEI πapa Oev.”—Epift. to POLYCARP.

communion with CHRIST; and that facraments not administered by the bishop, or those commiffioned by him, were not only ineffectual to the parties, but moreover, like the offerings of KORAH, provocations against the LORD.

If, then, the conftitution of the Christian church be the fame now that it was in the days of the Apostles, (and if it be not, the time when, and the

2

authority by which, an alteration was produced in it, fhould be ascertained) the fin of fchifm, however we may attempt to palliate it, is precifely the fame fin it then was. And if the primitive writers of the church fpoke fo decidedly upon this subject, with a view of guarding its members against so heinous a fin, where it refpected chiefly the feparation of inferior ministers from the jurifdiction of their respective bifhops; what would they have faid upon it, had they lived to mark the extent to which this fin is carried in the days in which we live? If they confidered fchifm, as it was then practifed, as the greatest of all crimes, because it directly counteracted the Divine plan in the establishment of the church; what language would they have found fufficiently strong to exprefs their abhorrence of that Babel of confufion, which now prevails in the Chriftian world? If the

preservation of the government of the church conftituted an object of that importance in their eyes, as to fubject any the least oppofition to it to their feverest cenfure; what must they have thought of that licentious practice, which leads to its total diffolution? when, in confequence of all ideas refpecting the nature of the church having been in a great measure loft among us, men look not beyond themselves for that commiffion, by which they presume to enter upon the ministry of holy things; drawing congregations after them, and thereby dividing Christian profeffors into as many fects and parties, as there are felf-fufficient teachers to be found, who have an end to answer, or a paffion to gratify, upon the occafion.

The opinions of the present day, unhappily for us, tend to countenance a general diffolution of establishments; as if men are different creatures now from what they were in any former state of the world; and grown too wife, in this age of reafon, as it is called, to submit to any ordinances that have not received. the fanction of their own immediate appointment.

But if it be true, that CHRIST formed only one church, there can be but one communion in it; and if that church be a vifible fociety, distinctly known by its ministers and facraments, as it most certainly

is, a wilful feparation from it must be rebellion against the Divine ordinance, whenever it takes place. For ignorance with respect to the nature of the Christian church, can make no alteration in the plan upon which Divine Wifdom has formed it: confequently schism, or a separate communion from that church, muft, whatever ideas of prejudice or error may prevail on the fubject, be an heinous fin in the eyes of GOD.

To form a proper judgment upon this fubject, we must not be governed by the opinions and practices of the world upon it; because it ever has been the misfortune of the world, to be more fond of its own inventions than of GoD's commands. And there is this obvious reafon for it; what man invents has à more ftrict correspondence with the corrupt inclinations of his depraved nature, than what God ordains: and hence it is, that we are fo readily induced to fubftitute human imaginations in the place of Divine inftitutions. The one are creatures of our own, and tend in a greater or lefs degree to the gratification of our humours and paffions; the other, as controling our inclinations, and abridging our liberty, are on that account lefs welcome to the natural man.

To deal honeftly with ourselves, therefore, we fhould place this fubject upon the ground on which

it ought to stand. By proceeding thus, we fhall find that one great object in the establishment of the church, was to unite men by the bond of charity in conftant communion with GoD and each other; that by entering upon a life of peace, of love, and fellowship with the Holy Ghoft upon earth, the members of it might be prepared for that more perfect ftate provided for them in a better world.

A church, the members of which were to be thus joined together in Christian fellowship, presented a picture of too heavenly a fociety for the grand enemy of mankind to behold without envy; and which, if fuffered to continue in a perfect state, would most certainly tend to render those beings happy, whom, from the creation of the world, it has been the con-. ftant employment of this deftroyer, as he is emphatically called, to render miferable. From the moment, therefore, that the church was founded upon earth, the malice of this evil one has been directed against it. And it not being in his power to destroy the church, (the Divine Founder of it having exprefsly declared, that the gates of hell fhall not finally prevail against it) his next object has been to render it as ineffectual to the purpose of its establishment as pof