ved, under the management of defigning men, the fource of ruin to our conftitution.

To perfuade the people, that the ecclefiaftical eftablishment of their country stands in need of further reformation, that the doctrine of CHRIST's religion is not to be found in that purity in the church as it is out of it, and that the clergy are infufficient to their important charge, is, by alienating their minds. from the present order of things, to prepare them for a change and when the minds of the people in any country are prepared for a change, we know that opportunity only is wanting to effect it.

It shall be readily granted, that the object you have in view, is most important. The fame we must in charity suppose, was the object which many of the puritans had in view, in their defire to raise the national religion up to what they conceived to be a purer standard. We have feen the effect of their proceedings; and with this effect before our eyes, it becomes a question of political prudence, whether we fhould fubject the conftitution of our country to the hazard of a fimilar experiment. It may be fubmitted, therefore, to your serious confideration, whether the means you are taking for promoting the cause of re

ligion are the best calculated for the purpose, or fuch as a guardian of the constitution ought to adopt.

The established church of this country has been called the eye of the reformation, in confequence of its having best provided for the fecurity and perfection of the Christian religion; and it will be found, I believe, that error has, in a greater or less degree, been the confequence of feparation from it. You, Sir, profess yourself a member of this church, at the fame time your manner of writing is calculated to promote feparation from it: for, by introducing vague definitions of a church, in confequence of an ill-judged confufion of its diftinct character as an invifible and vifible fociety, you have left that incorrect idea upon the reader's mind, which, by doing away every settled notion relative to the ecclefiaftical esta blishment of his country, prepares him for that promifcuous communion with different focieties of Christians, for which you appear to be a zealous advocate, and in which the true character of fchifm confifts. It was with an eye to perfons who may be deceived by fuch an indiscriminate mode of writing which now too much prevails; or who may be led to conclude, that they are in communion with the church, when they attend irregular places of worship where the liturgy

of the church is made ufe of; that I obferved, that many well-meaning pious perfons became fchifmatics, without knowing they were fo;-a pofition which I fee no reason to retract, and which, after what has been fo fully faid on the nature of schism, it must be unneceffary farther to explain.

There is a judicious remark to be found in the writings of an author, with whom you have at least fome acquaintance, which appears to have escaped your notice. "For lack (fays he) of diligent obferving the difference between the church of GoD myftical and visible, the overfights are neither few nor light that have been committed.' HOOKER Ecc.

Pol. lib. iii. An attention to this important distinction, which you will find clearly marked out in a book which has already been recommended to your attention, would have prevented your giving that defcription of the church which renders every thing faid upon it as a visible society, both by the inspired and primitive writers, totally inapplicable. For to be a fubject of human government, the church must be a visible fociety; and it is in confequence only of its being such a visible society, that there can be that separation from it which constitutes the fin of schism.

This confideration might have tended to establish in your mind a more correct idea of what has been always understood by the unity of the Chriftian church, than you at prefent appear to poffefs, and prevented you from becoming, in contradiction to your character both as a churchman and a statesman, a patron of schism; by an occafional attendance upon thofe irregular places of worship, feparated from the communion of that church of which you are profeffedly a member, and thereby giving your perfonal countenance to feparation from that establishment, which you are constitutionally bound to fupport.

This fubject may not, it is probable, have struck which you in the fame ferious light that it does me. But, Sir, when by the train, which we were told fome years fince, was laying grain by grain, for the purpose of blowing up the old fabric of our establishment, we are to understand fome plan for drawing the body of the people away from our church; upon the idea, that when the diffenters from it fhall become the majority, they will not long be governed by the minority; it no longer becomes a matter of indifference, confidered only in a political view, whether our fellow-fubjects continue members of the established church of their country, or not.

We have seen that a literary cabal in France, by poisoning the fountains of learning, and introducing a new set of ideas into the human mind, inconfiftent with all established notions, has effected the deftruction both of their church and government. We have too good reafon to think, that a fimilar plan for a fimilar purpose is working in this country; which, by giving what are fignificantly called new lights to the people, is defigned to prepare them for that new order of things, by which, under the fpecious title of reformation, many well-meaning, though not welljudging, perfons are miferably imposed upon.

I have too high an opinion of your character as a Christian, to think that you would wish to act in concert with the projectors of such a ruinous plan. At the fame time, it must be submitted to your confideration, whether, by putting afide every fettled idea belonging to a church, as a visible society, and introducing thofe loofe notions refpecting church communion, which are to be found in your book, you do not make yourself inftrumental in the promotion of a cause, which has for its object the setting men free from all regular and established restraint.

This confideration addreffes itself to you, not lefs in your character as a legislator, than it does to you in