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 reftrain a licence, of which, from the latitudinavian way of thinking and acting, in which they have been educated, they conceive themselves born in rightful poffeffion.

The minister of the church however, who prays conftantly against fchifm, fhould in confequence think it is duty to prevent Christians, as far as may be, from falling into fo dangerous a fin. And whilst he remembers of what spirit 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 use 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 beft armour, the Gofpel of peace, and the exemplary holiness of Chriftian converfation."

Without pronouncing fentence 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 Chriftian 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 Christian faith as the offspring of Divine revelation, he will regard the varying opinions of mankind upon those fubjects, 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 ftandard 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 fome 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 episcopal jurisdiction; in others, by their attendance at places of worship which are in an actual state of separation 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 separated from the establishment, can be fecure from the charge of at least virtual perjury.

at a loss to determine. For, as I have always understood, the schism of which such a minister is guilty, ftrictly correfponds with that fin, against which the Apostles and first bishops fo loudly inveighed, which confifted in breaking the unity of the church by a separation of particular congregations from the authority of their respective bishops. But exclufive of this important confideration, there is, moreover (as the fubject strikes me) fomething like two fallacies practised upon this occafion. The proprietors of these separate places of worship, by fheltering them under the Toleration Act, prostitute an act of the legislature to a purpose for which it was never made. By fo doing, what was defigned only as an indulgence to those who diffented from the church, becomes minis

unum

* ST. CYPRIAN confidered that the unity of the Christian church was liable to be broken two ways; by herefy and fchifm. "DIABOLUS hærefes invenit et fchifmata; quibus fcinderet unitatem." CYPR. de Unit. Eccl. § 2. In allufion therefore to this distinction, after having, with an eye to the profeffion of the fame faith, exemplified the unity of the church in the words of ST. PAUL; 66 corpus, et unus fpiritus, una fpes vocationis veftræ, unus DOMINUS, una fides, unum baptifma, unus DEUS;" he proceeds to point out that other bond of unity, by which it was defigned that the Chriftian church fhould be held together. "Nemo fraternitatem mendacio fallat; nemo fidei veritatem perfidâ prævaricatione corrumpat; epifcopatus eft unus; cujus a fingulis in folidum pars tenetur.". CYPR. de Unit. Eccl. § 4.

terial to the actual divifion of the church itself. This is a fallacy practifed upon the legislature.*

But there is still another fallacy attached to these feparate places of worship, which, though it may not be defigned, ought to be guarded against. The adoption of the liturgy of the church of England serves as a decoy to many well-meaning Christians; who, from their perfect ignorance with refpect to the nature of the Christian church, and the fin of fchifm, conclude, that if they attend the church service, it matters not where it is performed, or by whom; and thus become fchifmatics, without knowing that they are fo.

It may be a position inadmiffible in the prefent day, though founded upon the bafis of truth and

* By the Act of Toleration, those who declare themselves diffenters from the church of England are exempted from certain penalties, on their taking certain oaths. But in the places of worship here alluded to, fuch as Lady HUNTINGDON'S chapel in Baths as it is called, and others of a fimilar kind, the parties affembled are not diffenters from the church of England; for they make use of its fervices, and have at times a clergyman of the church of England for their officiating minifter; they are therefore a fort of feparatifts from the church, at the fame time that they conform to it: a fallacy which, it might be hoped, no clergyman of the church of England would countenance, because it tends to defeat an object which he, as a minifter of the establishment, ought to have at heart.

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