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LETTER II.

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climb over." The figure by which the church under the Gospel is here reprefented, is borrowed from the application that is made of it to the church under the law; where the Prophet, in the fifth chapter of ISAIAH, denounceth the judgment which GOD had determined to execute upon a corrupted church. In reference to this denunciation by the prophet, our LORD, addreffing himself to the Jewish people, deliyers the parable which we meet with in the fourth chapter of ST. MATTHEW; where he defcribes the Jewish church as a vineyard, which a certain houfholder had planted and hedged about, and let out to the priests under the law, to drefs and cultivate. And when God's fervants, the prophets, were sent to examine into the state of this vineyard, fome were killed, others ftoned. At length, in the fulness of time, the Son and Heir of the Houfholder came in perfon: Him the husbandmen caught and flew; the confequence of which wicked proceeding was, that the Lord of the vineyard destroyed the murderers, and let out his vineyard to other husbandmen. He did not, it must be observed, destroy the vineyard, but only put the management of it in other hands. Nor was the wall of defence, by which the vineyard was feparated from the world, pulled down, and the

vineyard thrown open; but only the maintenance of the wall, together with the cultivation of the inclofure, committed to different workmen.

By the wall, I prefume, is to be understood that conftitution and government of the church, whether under the law or under the Gofpel, by which the church, as the peculiar property of GOD, is feparated from the world. This conftitution, I conceive, is poffeffed of those characteristic marks, by which it may be as perfectly afcertained under the Chriftian, as under the Jewish dispensation. Our SAVIOUR informs us, that he came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them; not to fet up a new religion, but to perfect the old. And the ground upon which the divinity of the first ages of the church was built, as may be seen at large in the writings of JUSTIN MARTYR, and other primitive writers, was this—that Judaism was mystical Christianity; and that the temple œconomy was perfected under the Gospel. In conformity with which idea, and with the view of establishing the dignity and character of the Chriftian priesthood, the analogy

*The Preface to the "Cafe of Infant Baptifm" will give the reader much fatisfactory information on this subject. See "London Cafes," No. 15.

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between the minifters of the law,

and thofe of the

What therefore

Gospel, was fo frequently drawn. you proceed to fay refpecting the wall of GOD's vineyard, by which it is feparated from the world; that "whether it was round or fquare, of brick or ftone, is no where afcertained;" appears to me calculated to put a wild idea into the reader's head, by leading him to conclude, that the conftitution of the Christian church has received no particular form or establishment whatever; a pofition, which I prefume you, as a Churchman, could not mean to advance.*

You proceed to fay, "whatever be the fhape or quality of the, wall, it was not to be daubed with untempered mortar." Now, Sir, though you appear to have introduced fome confufion into your metaphor, by paffing from the wall or outward form of the church, the original object of its application, to the mortar; by which I prefume is meant the doctrine

*It is an obfervation of the late Mr. JONES on Satan's temptation in the wilderness, that he "separated the word ftone from its metaphorical meaning, to change the true fenfe of the promife, and promote his own malicious intention. They are guilty of a like error, who wilfully feparate the edifice of the church from its fpiritual relation to GOD, and confider it merely as a pile of stone and mortar, that they might lightly regard all that belongs to it."

JONES'S Works, vol. iii. p. 213.

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preached in it; and though I difcover no analogy between the preachers of the Gofpel, (the weapons of whofe warfare are fpiritual, not carnal) and the material builders of the fecond temple; who, as we read, were obliged, when engaged in their work, to be prepared with an offenfive weapon to refift the attack of threatening enemies who furrounded them; yet, as I perfectly agree with you in the idea meant to be conveyed, that the doctrine of the preacher ought to tend to the edification of his hearers; I will not take up time in difputing about the ftrict propriety of the dress in which it is clothed.

I now pafs on to the main fubject of your letter. The three pofitions with which you say I fet out in my work, and which meet the reader in every part of it, are these:

Firft, That the original inftitution of church government, by CHRIST and his Apoftles, confifted of three diftinct orders among the clergy, viz. bishops, priests, and deacons.

Second, That in no cafe whatever the external polity of the church may be altered.

Thirdly, That all, who are out of the pale of the church thus established, have no promise of falvation, but must be left to the uncovenanted mercies of God.

The first of these pofitions, it is most certainly one profeffed object of my book to maintain; and I fee no reason, from any thing that has been advanced against it, to tread back my ground. And though I do not think it is in my power to establish the pofition more firmly than I have done already, yet, Sir, as you profess yourself to be fincerely attached to the constitution of the Church of England, and no voluntary schismatic; I fhall hope that what I may ftill fay on this fubject, in answer to the objections brought against it, may produce fome good effect.

With this view it will be proper to give an answer to those Presbyterian arguments, which have been brought together, for the ftrange purpose of invalidating a position, which you yourself, if I understand you right, profeffedly maintain.

The ground upon which the position respecting the original inftitution of church government was built in my book, was briefly this: That our SAVIOUR did, after his refurrection, deliver a commiffion to his eleven difciples relative to the government of his church; and that the manner in which this commiffion was to be carried into effect, is to be afcertained by the fubfequent practice of the Apostles: on the fuppofition, that our SAVIOUR would not