the present fubject. On the authority of scripture, I call the church the candlestick; the doctrine, the light: the former made for the purpose of containing and supporting the latter. Now I prefume, Sir, you would not think that man to be the wisest of men, or that he took the fureft method to preferve his light, who should throw the candlestick away, and stick the candle against the wall or on his table; on the confideration, that the candlestick was of lefs value than the light, for whofe fake alone it was made.

To make use of another fcriptural analogy; the church is called the pillar and the ground of the truth; not only because the church teaches it, but because she supports and preserves it, by that authority with which CHRIST has invested her for that purpose. The advantage which the Jew had over the Gentile under the old difpenfation, confifted in his being a member of that church, to which the oracles of GOD had been entrusted, Rom. iii. 2. In like manner the advantage which the Christian enjoys under the new difpenfation confifts in his being a member of that church, to which the Gofpel revelation has been entrusted as a facred depofit by JESUS CHRIST; for the purpose of preferving which, as much as might be, from corruption and error, (that the end CHRIST

had in view in the delivery of it, might be carried into as complete effect as the circumstances of the world would admit) the fword of difcipline and authority, commonly called the power of the keys, was committed by him to the governors of it.

Granting then that GOD does nothing in vain, a pofition which, it is prefumed, will not be controverted; it follows from the foregoing premises, that the preservation of the faith and doctrine of the church depends, under GOD, upon the proper exercife of this power; and confequently on the support of that government which was committed to the church, as a visible society, for the proper management of its concerns. When either the power entrufted to the governors, for the edification of the church is not duly exercised, (a confideration which made ST. CYPRIAN fay, "quam periculofum fit in rebus divinis, ut quis à jure fuo et poteftate recedat;") or when the government of the church is deftroyed; then, a door being opened for errors and herefies of every kind, the object which CHRIST had in view in the establishment of the church on earth is in a great degree fruftrated. The doctrine of the church then, it will be allowed on all hands, is effential to the object of its establishment. But the go

vernment of the church is alfo effential to it as a fociety; for without that no fociety can poffibly exist. And without the existence of fuch a fociety as the vifible church, the true faith will not long be preserved in the world.

That legion of herefies which sprung up in this country on the abolition of epifcopacy in the laft century will give weight, I truft, to the foregoing confideration; and induce you to conclude, that the external polity of the church is a matter of effential importance; confidered as God's own plan for the advancement and fecurity of the great object He had in view, in revealing himself to the world; and confequently that a comparison drawn between two propofitions in themselves equally true, by which an incautious reader may be led to give a preference to the one at the expence of the other, may do injury to that cause, which you, as a Christian, must wish to promote.

I pafs on, Sir, to what is faid, page 3d, refpecting our Establishment; in which I perfectly agree with you, that "all her faithful fons may admire her outward fymmetry and beauty, without opening the mouth of cenfure against those who do not exactly fee with our eyes."

I flattered myself that I had spoken as charitably on this fubject as you yourself could have wifhed, when I faid, page 403, that "if the establishment of the church of CHRIST be true, the Diffenter from from it is in an error; if his error be unavoidable, we rejoice to think that he is in the hands of a merciful GOD; but fhould his feparation from the church be derived from evil caufes, be it remembered, that that Being who has established nothing in vain, is not to be mocked."

The object of my book was to point out the nature and constitution of the Chriftian church, and the evil confequences derivable from a feparation from it; not to condemn or cenfure the parties who feparate. Their caufe is left with God, who is alone qualified to judge of it. A

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Should any unguarded expreffions, therefore, occur in my book, which may have given birth to the foregoing observation, as addreffed to me; I fhould have hoped, they would have been interpreted with that candour which is due to an author, who profeffes to write from a moft charitable regard to the fpiritual welfare of his fellow-Chriftians. I have only farther to obferve, Sir, as to this point, (fince I cannot find that the law which tolerates Diffenters in

their feparation from the church, does at all forbid us to give the reasons for our attachment to her communion;) that at a time when every fectarist is permitted, in contempt of law and order, to write with the most marked, not to fay indecent and infolent, cenfure upon the government of that church which is established in his country; if the faithful fons of the church may not defend that ground which they are profeffionally called on to maintain, without being charged with confequences which may tend to throw a ftumbling-block in the way of their honest endeavours; the members of the church of England appear in this refpect to be in a worse fituation than those of the conventicle or meeting-house. But, Sir, the reason you fubjoin for our not speaking too decidedly on the subject of the church establishment, because the greatest and best of men, after the labour of many years, are no nearer an agreement on it than they were at the beginning; and that after all the difputes that have been carried on between Churchmen and Diffenters, it ftill remains (in your own fomewhat coarfish phrase) a drawn battle; is what I am forry to hear a Churchman advance, and what I believe will by no means be admitted by any perfon acquainted with the true state of the cafe.