thin b

part of a very fervent, fcriptural and edifying fervice, is by no means indefenfible. All adults who profefs to be members of the Church of England, have taken upon themselves vows, the performance of which would prove them to be Chriftians indeed; we are therefore bound, in the judgment of Charity, to hope well of every Member of the Church of England, who has in Confirmation ratified the vows made for him at his Baptifm, till we are obliged by clear evidence to form a different opinion of him. But you fay that fome of her members, who are confidered as dearly-beloved Brethren departed, "have followed the moft licentious and abandoned principles :"Allowed. But how can we know that even fuch perfons might not repent and seek mercy, and find it, like the penitent thief, in their last moments? I firmly believe that every impenitent unbelieving perfon, dying fuch, under the Gospel, will perish eternally: But I fhould thing it great prefumption to fay, of this or that wicked individual, how little caufe fo ever he had left behind him for hope, that even with his expiring breath he cried for mercy through Chrift," He is affuredly gone to Hell."

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But, without refting much weight on this argument, let us allow a very poffible, and I greatly fear, a very common cafe; that a Clergyman is called to perform the Funeral Service, at the Burial of a wicked Man, dying in his fins: Even then, the Establishment is free from blame. Almoft all thofe vices and acts of irreligion, which prove a Man to be wicked, are punishable by Law. They ought to be punished. Discipline ought to be restored, as in the primitive times. The Church and all her ferious Children lament that it is not. If wicked men were proceeded againft for their vices and ungodlinefs, they would either be brought to fhew fatisfactory marks of penitence, and then the Minister might perform the Service, at their Interment, with propriety and pleasure; or else they would be caft out of the Church, and then he would not be called upon to perform it, at their Funeral, at all. The Church therefore is perfectly consistent with herself. And will any one fay, because a Church Service, calculated for the living, and not at all affecting the dead, is fometimes, through a decay of discipline, neceffarily performed over the remains of a perfon, whofe cafe it may not reprefent, that therefore this is a folid and binding reason why

See the Addrefs in the Commination Service,

that Church is to be deferted? In other words, is a defect in the administration of good Laws and Inftitutions, in fome inconfiderable inftance, a fufficient cause why thofe Laws should be abolished and those Inftitutions overturned? If it was neceffary for you to leave the Church of England on this account, it would be neceffary for all. But if fuch conduct, under fuch circumftances, be neceffary for all, then it will follow, that no permanent Government, or Religious Establishment, or Affociation whatever, can exift; for there never was a civil or ecclefiaftical polity, in the execution of whose Laws and Discipline no defects were visible.

Upon the whole then, I would appeal to any difinterested judge, whether these two reasons (and these are the only or the principal reasons adduced) are fufficient to convert that proceeding, which would have otherwise been, without queftion, the fin of fchifm, into an act of necessary duty? Nay I will go further and fay, that if this be all that you could produce, as a plea for forfaking the Church of England, at the time of your feparation, it is from the pen of an enemy, one of the warmeft teftimonies, in fayour of her excellence, which I wish to fee,

2. Having examined your reafons for forfaking the worship of God in the Church of England, (a step which foon led, as was to be expected, to your renunciation of her Doctrines too) iţ may not be foreign from my design, before I proceed to contraft your present system with ours, to afcertain what are the qualifications neceffary for the proper investigation of religious Truth.

I have already obferved that real Christianity is not like a fcience, or a fecret in nature, the reward of laborious enquiry, the deduction of reafoning, or the refult of experiment, but a fyftem of Truths revealed to us from Heaven, and at once complete, intelligible, and beyond the ability of man to improve. Agreeably to this idea of religion, we find that the fcriptures, in calling us to become wife unto salvation, insist not fo much upon power of intellect, and high cultivation of the reafoning faculties, as upon a certain difpofition of heart, by no means neceffarily combined with ftrength of mind, but to be found alike with it, or without it-I mean HUMILITY; a diffident, teachable spirit, which, humbly confcious of its own ignorance and weakness and liablenefs to mistake, looks up to God for light and direction, and meekly receives the Truth of him with implicit faith.

Humility is thus infifted upon, and approved in the word of God. "The Lord refifteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."* "To this man will I look, even to him who is poor, and of a contrite fpirit, and that trembleth at my Word." "Be not wife in thine own eyes."‡ "Lean not to thine own understanding."S" Bleffed are the poor in fpirit." "I thank thee O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou haft hid these things from the wife and prudent; and haft revealed them unto babes."** 66 If any man among you feemeth to be wife in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wife" "The meek will he guide in judgment, the meek will he teach his way, &c. &c. Now, how do these texts apply to your Spirit and Sentiments? Is there in your procefs, or in your publication, (I dont fay any avowed profeffion of humility, for it is in the very nature of Chriftian Humility not to be ready to discover, much less to speak highly of itself, but) any proof, any fymptom of Humility? On the contrary, it is the very genius and characteristic of your principles, that they proclaim aloud the fufficiency of man, and lead him to boaft and be confident. Is it