being fuited to the object, the affembly had in view, was, in confequence of very preffing remonftances againft it, kept back; though, in juftice to truth, it ought to ftand om record, as it here does.*.

But when this new form of Church government, which in its origin pleaded neceffity for its introduc tion, and was confidered, by the introducers of it, as fupplying the place of what was then acknowledged to be a better thing, became fo rampant as to bear with no oppofition; thofe Prefbyters whom Calvin declared ought to be anathematized, whe would not reverence fuch an hierarchy as the Church of England poffeffed, trampled that very hierarchy under foot, as an anti-Chriftian, iniquitous, and ty rannical ufurpation.t-When, at a fubfequent period, Epifcopacy was reftored with the Monarchy of this country, the Church of England-returned to her ori

*This important piece of information is given at full length in a letter from Dr. P. du Moulin to Dr. Durells and published in the Appendix to his" View of the Government and Public Worship of GOD in the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas." P.339, 340.

"Talem fi nobis hierarchiam exhibeant, in quâ fic emineant. Epifcopi, ut Christo fubeffe non recufent, et ab illo tanquam unico capite pendeant, et ad ipfum referantur; in quâ fic inter fe fraternam focietatem colant, ut non alio modo quam ejus veritate fint colligati, tum vero nullo non anathemate dignos fatear, fi qui erunt, qui non eam revereantur, fummâque obedientiâ obfervent."-Calvin de Neceff. Eccles. Réform.

Beza's language on this fubject was equally ftrong. Speaking of the Epifcopacy of the Church of England, he fays, "Fruatur fanè ifta fingulari DEI beneficentiâ, quæ utinam fit illi perpetuaTract. de Minift. Eccl. Grad. cap. i. and xviii.

ginal ideas on this fubject; confidering the cafe of Diffenters as a fchifmatical separation from the Communion of a true and Apoftolical Church. The difcourses written on this occafion, for the purpose of recovering the Diffenters to unity, though, through the infirmity of human nature, they failed in producing the defired effect, do infinite honour to the divines of that day; and ought to be in the hands of every clergyman, who would be thoroughly acquainted with the weakness of the objections, by which the unhappy feparation from the Communion of the Church of England was originally maintained.* The increafing eftablifhment of separate congrega tions, which took place fince the above period, though it could not alter the ftate of the cafe, as it really ftands between the member of the Church and the feparatift, or in any degree change the nature of the fin of fchifm, tended however to loofen the ideas of Christians in general on the fubject of Church com munion; fo that fome who entertained very correct notions relative to the original Apoftolic form of Church government, began ftill to question, whether it was fuch a fine quâ non as might not be dispensed with. Le Clerc has exhibited a ftrong fpecimen of this accommodation of fentiment to the changing cir cumstances of times. Profeffing, in one page of his writings," to believe Epifcopacy to be of Apoftolical

Thefe Difcourfes are now collected together in three vols. octavo, under the title of " the London Cafes”

inftitution, and confequently very good and lawful; that it was justly preferved in England; and that therefore the Proteftants in England, and in other places where there are bishops, do very ill to separate from that discipline, because nothing is more proper to prevent things from being turned into chaos, and people from being feen without a call, and without learning, pretending to infpiration, than the Epifcopal difcipline:" with this belief in his mind, on the fub ject of Episcopacy, Le Clerc, in another part of his works, writes thus: "It is nothing to the purpose to fhew that Chrift and his Apostles inftituted this form of Church government, and that the Church never had any other kind of government in it for above fifteen hundred years, from our Saviour's days downwards; which, though it be fo clearly evidenced, that the truth of it cannot be denied; yet it is of no weight, nor deserves to be regarded. For those who would make the hierarchy neceffary to the conftitution of the Chriftian Church, ought to prove, that GOD inftituted Christianity for the fake of the Epifcopal order; and that the Epifcopal order was not inftituted for the fake of Chriftianity. For if this order was appointed for the fake of the Church, (which they cannot deny) they must also acknowledge, that if it be more advantageous to the Church in fome places to have this order abolished, it is not amifs to lay it afide in fuch places." Now to us it appears, that there is nothing neceffary either to be

proved or acknowledged on this fubject; but fomething highly neceffary to be confidered; namely, that as GOD, that all-wife Being, "who feeth the end from the beginning," was, by his Apoftles, the inftitutor of the government of his own Church, (a kingdom not of this world;) it is to be in humility concluded, that no form that man might fubftitute in its place, would equally anfwer the purpofe; and confequently that it could not prove more advantageous to the Church in any place, that the divinelyinstituted form of its government fhould be abolished. Although therefore we make the hierarchy neceffary to the conftitution of the Chriftian Church, because it has been divinely instituted; we are not obliged to prove that God inftituted Christianity for the fake of the Epifcopal order; nor fhould we expect to be called upon for fuch proof by any man of competent underftanding; it is fufficient for us to fay, that the government of the Church, in its original form, was inftituted for the fake of Christianity, to preserve its truth in the world; for from thence it will follow, that for the fake of Christianity, in other words, for the the fecurity of the fame divine object, it ought to be preferved. "We do not fay, that Christianity was instituted for the fake of the outward polity of the Church, or the Church for the fake of the Episcopal order; but we may justly fay, what is plainly faid in Scripture, and was conftantly profeffed in the pureft ages of the Gofpel, that the belief of "the Holy

Catholic Church" being a part of the faith which Christianity requires, and the Epifcopal order a part of what we are taught to believe concerning the conftitution and government of the Church, no feparation must be attempted of what our God and Saviour has thus joined together."* And this, it might be prefumed, fhould be enough to fay to any reasonable, and modeft Chriftian on the fubject.

But error cannot be ftationary; it is conftantly proceeding from bad to worfe; the breach at which the waters enter is continually growing wider, till the inundation becomes univerfal. That looseness of opinion on the fubject of Church government, which the original feparation from the Apoftolic form of it by degrees introduced, appears at length to be arrived at the ne plus ultra of ecclefiaftic infubordination: for we are now, at the end of the eighteenth Century, told by a Profeffor in a Church which has been generally diftinguished by the strictness of its difcipline, that "the first order given to the Eleven to make converts, to baptize, and to teach, carries in it nothing from which we can difcover that it was a commiffion entrusted to them exclufively as Apoftles or Minifters, and not given them also as Chriftians; and that the Apostles were particularized, because best qualified, from their long attendance on Chrift's ministry, for

See Bishop SKINNER's excellent Defence of Epifcopacy againft the attack made on it by the late Dr, CAMPBELL, under the title of ❝ Primitive Truth and Order vindicated," &c.

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