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the fin of fchifm in the Christian church, correfponding with that of KORAH and his affociates, alluded to by ST. JUDE, originally confifted.

The light in which this fin was seen in the primitive days of the church, makes it a fubject of ferious confideration. The Apostles, and those who lived with them, could not be mistaken upon this point. Knowing what the conftitution of that church was, over which they were commiffioned to prefide, they must know in what the fin of thofe perfons confifted, who fet themselves up in oppofition to it. An appeal, therefore, to their writings in this cafe muft afford unanfwerable evidence to all who are open to conviction.

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What ST. PAUL and ST. JUDE have faid upon it has been already remarked. To which the teftimony of ST. JOHN may be added, where, in his third epistle, he speaks of one DIOTREPHES, who, in the true fpirit of KORAH, "loving to have the preeminence," created a divifion among the brethren, by not fubmitting himself to ST. JOIN, who was his fuperior in the church. And whatever different interpretations, with the view of favouring different opinions, have been put upon the Apoftolic writings, evidence is to be produced from the primitive writers

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of the church fo decifive, as to take away all reasonable ground for dispute on this fubject.

It will be fufficient to produce one of these writers; because, if his authority, direct to this point, be not fufficient to determine the opinion of every reasonable man, all further appeal becomes unneceffary. The writer here meant is ST. IGNATIUS, one of the first bishops and martyrs of the church, who lived with the Apostles, and was a difciple of ST. JOHN; a circumstance, which, it is prefumed, places his testimony in the most unexceptionable point of view; because, what he has written must, in fairnefs of construction, be confidered as expreffing the sense of the Apostles; his authority, confequently, becomes equal to theirs upon this fubject.

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Thus then, in one part of his writings, he admonishes those whom he addreffes, " to beware of the poifon of feducers;" by whom were meant the fchifmatics, or those who separated from the church in those times; for, continues this holy man, " he is without, who does any thing without the bishop and prefbytery and deacon, and fuch an one is defiled in his confcience."*

* Ο δὲ ἐκτὸς ὤν, ετος εςιν ο χωρις τ8 Επίσκοπε, και των πρεσβύλεςων και των Διακόνων τι πράσσών ο τοιέτος μεμίανται τη συνειδήσει. IGN. Epift. to the Trallians.

In another part of his writings, referring to the obedience due from all orders in the church to the bilhops, this holy man fpeaks thus: “ Flee divifions, as the beginning of evils; all of you follow your bihops, as JESUS CHRIST, the Father; and the prelbyters, as the Apoftles; and reverence the deacons as the institution of GOD. Let no man do any thing of what appertains to the church without the bishop. Let that facrament be judged effectual and firm which is difpenfed by the bishop, or him to whom the bishop has committed it. Wherever the bishop is, there let the people be. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptife, or celebrate the offices; but whenfoever it may be approved of ty him, according to the good pleafure of Gop; that every thing ye do may be firm and fafe."*

Again, fpeaking of those who act without the bishop, he obferves, " AS CHRIST did nothing with

Παντες τω Επισκοπω

* Τα σχισματα φευγετε ως αρχην κακων. ακολυθείτε ως Κριτος Ιησάς τω Πατρι, κ τω Πρεσπυτερίω ως τους Αποςόλοις; της δε Διακονες εντρεπεσθε, ως Θε8 εντολην. Μηδεις χωρίς Επίσκοπε τι πρασσ τω των ανηκόντων εις την εκκλησίαν εκείνα βέβαια ευχαρισία ηγείσθω, ή υπο τον Επισκοπον ὅσα, ή ω αν αυτος επιτρεψη. Οπω αν φάνη ο Επισκοπος, εκεί το πλήθος εδω. Ουκ εξον εςι χωρίς το

Επισκοπε, στι βαπτίζειν, ετε δόξην επιτελών.

Αλλ' οταν εκεινω δοκη

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ευαρεςησιν Θε8, ινα ασφαλες ἢ καὶ βεβαιον παν ο αν πρασση
IGNAT. Epift. to the Smyrnæans.

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 condemnation of all feparation from it, that a particular comment upon them is unneceffary. They speak 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 bifhop, 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

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Α' σε Ωσπερ και ο Κύριος ανευ τε Πατρος εδεν ποιει, ετω και ύμεις ανευ το Επίσκοπε, μηδε Πρεσβύτερος, μηδε Διακονος, μηδε 8 λαικος.”. IGNAT. Epift. to the Magnes.

« Τω Επισκόπω προσέχετε, ινα και ο Θεος υμίν αντιψυχον εγω των υποτασσόμενων ζύον Επισκόπω, Πρεσβυτερίω, Διακονοις μετ' αυτών μοι TO frepos YEVOITO EXEIV Tapa ε."-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 authority by which, an alteration was produced in it, fhould be ascertained) the fin of schism, however we may attempt to palliate it, is precisely the fame fin it then was. And if the primitive writers of the church spoke so decidedly upon this fubject, with a view of guarding its members against fo heinous a fin, where it refpected chiefly the feparation of inferior minifters 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 express their abhorrence of that Babel of confufion, which now prevails in the Chriftian world? If the

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