Admitting, then, that the conclufion drawn from these premises, may found harfh to the ears of those who feparate from her communion, it ought ftill not to offend them; because it is that conclufion, which they must expect fhould be drawn by every honeft minister of the Church; at the fame time that it is a conclufion, by which thofe who deny the validity of the premises in this case laid down, cannot confider themselves to be affected. The queftion therefore is not, whether the Church of England has determined rightly, or otherwife, on this fubject; but whether her minifters do not act in ftrict conformity with their character and duty, by inftructing the members of that Church in the nature of the fpiritual fociety to which they belong, with the view of preventing them from finning ignorantly by needless separation from it. At the fame time, with respect to those who are in an actual state of separation, we fay with the Apoftle, "what have we to do to judge them that are without; them which are without God judgeth,' they are in the hands of that all-gracious and all-merciful Being, who judgeth righteous judgment; and to Him we leave them.

To thofe therefore, who feem to confider the delivery of any decided judgment on the conftitution of the Church, and the fubjects neceffarily connected with it, to be inconfiftent with Chriftian charity, it may be proper to obferve, that the most enlarged idea of toleration is perfectly confiftent with the most

ftrenuous exertion in the cause of the Church; and that "the zeal," which is "according to knowledge," while it fhuns the intemperance, which is as repugnant to the spirit of Christianity, as it is to the common feelings of mankind, ftill finds itself properly employed, in contending earnestly for the truth. It was the language of the primitive Church, that "it is no part of religion to force religion." "Non eft religionis cogere religionem."* And, on following the history of the Christian Church, from its earliest days down to the present time, it will be found, that to be intolerant and uncharitable has been more the. characteristic of error than of truth. To contend earnestly for the truth then, and to be wanting in charity towards those who unhappily do not poffefs it, are difpofitions of the mind, between which there is certainly no neceffary connection.

But if a minifter of the Church is to refrain from teaching the fundamental principles of Church government, from a confideration of thereby giving offence, by appearing to pronounce fentence on those who separate from it; for the fame reafon he must refrain from infisting decidedly on any doctrine whatever; for there is no doctrine of the Church, which will not meet with parties to whom it is obnoxious. The preaching up, for instance, the being and providence of GOD, will be offenfive to atheists and worldlings, (of whom, it is to be feared, there is no

*TERTULLIAN ad SCAPULAM,

fmall number;) because they are thereby concluded under damning unbelief. The authority of the Scriptures, and the certainty of revealed religion, are points equally offenfive to deifts and fceptics. The union of the divine and human nature, as preparatory to the great work of atonement, is a doctrine not to be infifted upon; becaufe of its alarming confequence to Arians, Socinians, and Unitarians. The doctrine of the Christian Sacraments must, in like manner, be kept out of fight; from fear of giving offence to that fect among us, which is distinguished, partly, by the rejection of the feals divinely appropriated to the Gospel covenant.

This facrifice of principle, by the adoption of an accommodating system, from a defire of not giving. offence, (which by a mifnomer, characteristic of the prefent age, is called liberality) certainly bears no affinity to that Christian charity to which it pretends. For Christian charity has for its primary object the falvation of fouls; which is not to be effected by humouring men in their error, but by making them fee it; and with this view, writing them up to the truth, instead of writing, as the manner of fome hath been, the truth down to them. And the great excellence of Chriftian charity confifts in its making a proper difcrimination between the finner and the fin; condemning unequivocally the one, whilst it is at the fame time defirous of fparing, and even doing all manner of good to the other: after the example of

our truly charitable SAVIOUR, who, tho' he feverely rebuked his difciples for their defire to call down fire on a village of Samaria, as a punishment for its refusal to receive him; yet, when he had occafion to fpeak of the religion of its inhabitants, he did not admit that they were within the pale of the true Church; by decidedly declaring, that "they knew not what they worshipped, and that falvation was of the Jews."

With fuch an example before me, I claim the right, to which a Minifter of the Church is entitled, of maintaining the ground on which fhe ftands; and of reasoning, for the benefit of her members, in conformity with those premises, which she has authoritatively laid down; without being confidered anfwerable, in any way, for confequences which may attach to a denial of her premises, or to a feparation from her communion. These confequences it is my utmoft wifh, from a general love towards my Christian brethren, to prevent; though I dare not indulge an hope, that any feeble efforts of mine will turn to much account, after the arguments of fo many wife and learned men have proved ineffectual. Still, when I fee fo many apparently idle and unconcerned, whilft the enemy is digging and undermining the very ground on which they stand; and at the fame time confider, that they who help not to fupport the Church when she is in diftrefs, do in reality contribute to pull her down: in writing, as an honeft minister of that Church

ought to write on her fubject, I feel that fatisfaction, which must ever accompany a confcientious discharge of duty.

All I requeft of my reader is, that he would lay afide every prejudice, and with becoming reverence and humility of foul take his inftruction from GoD: fince to be wife above what is written, whether in matters of doctrine or difcipline, is to throw up the reins to inordinate affection, and to multiply error without end. Adverting to the effects the latitudinarian principle has already produced in the world, its progreffive nature, and the extremity to which, if not counteracted, it neceffarily leads; let him confider the growing indifference to the Divine institution of the Church, the contempt of its order, and the indifcriminate affumption of its facred ministry, to be, what it is much to be feared it is, a part of that wild philofophy, "which inculcates on every individual this dangerous principle; that his own capricious and uninformed notions are to fuperfede those ancient rules, which are taught by Divine Wisdom, or eftablished on the bafis of human experience; and which have hitherto been regarded with reverence, and confidered as the tefts and the bulwarks of morality: a philosophy, which, on the ground that every man is to erect a standard of right and wrong for himself, maintains the most criminal and deftructive actions to be justifiable, provided their perpetrator have fo de praved a judgment, and fo vitiated a heart, as fin

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