truth, that "the powers which God hath ordained, and the liberty which Christ hath purchased, are not intended by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another *." This is the case, when the duty of Christians at large is explained in such a way as to encroach on the office of a regular gospel ministry: When the lawfulness of confessions of human composure, as public declarations of the faith of a church, and their usefulness as tests of orthodoxy, though conformable in their matter to Scripture, and necessary in times of abounding error among persons professing Christianity, are impugned: When ecclesiastical office-bearers are stripped of that authority which is competent to them, and necessary for preserving order and subor dination, and the supreme power of finally determining every cause is lodged with the whole people in every worshipping congregation: When the combination of particular congregations, as parts of an extended and organized body, with a duly limited submission to a common judicatory for taking cognizance of differences which may arise in any part of that body, and judging of what concerns the good of the whole, is opposed: And, in fine, to pass over other tenets of a similar description which are rampant in the present age, when the lawfulness of the settlement of a system of religion in a nation, by the joint concurrence of ecclesiastical and civil authority, and with the general consent

Westm. Conf. of Faith, chap. xx. § 4.

of the people, is contradicted and opposed. Sectarianism, as the class of opinions referred to is usually called, is inimical to the unity of the church, as it has a direct tendency to foster diversity of sentiment and practice in religion, and to multiply schisms. If the common sense and experience of mankind did not check its operation, and prevent its keenest abettors from acting rigidly and consistently on their own principles, it would lead to the dissolution of all religious society, or at best to the rearing of a Babel, the foundations of which would be laid on its first-born, and the gates of it set up on its youngest and most favourite son. To these may be added rigid notions respecting ecclesiastical communion, incompatible with the imperfect state of the church in this world, whether these manifest themselves in requiring that all Christians should reach the same degree of the scale in their acquaintance with divine things, or in withdrawing from the communion of a church on account of particular acts of maladministration, or because discipline may not, in some instances, be exercised on offenders with faithfulness, or with all that severity which they may think proportioned to the nature of the offence; which was the error charged on the ancient Novatians and Donatists.

Divisions in the church may often be traced to a spirit of vanity, pride, and ambition. Than this nothing can be more repugnant to the spirit of Christianity, or prejudicial to ecclesiastical peace. It is often found combined with a spirit of error,

and has formed a very prominent feature in the character of heresiarchs and the founders of sects. It displays itself sometimes in an overweening fondness for their own private opinions, and at other times in the love of pre-eminence, or an impatience of contradiction, by which they are instigated to the adoption of factious and divisive courses. Others are impelled to divide the church by the base desire of gratifying their avarice, and procuring a livelihood from the disciples whom they draw after them. Such are the “unruly and vain talkers and deceivers," described by Paul, "who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake," and those whom another apostle charges "with beguiling unstable souls, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness *.

Tyranny and unreasonable imposition has been one fruitful source of division in the church. To gratify the lust of dominion, those calling themselves clergy have assumed a power of decreeing articles of faith and imposing forms of worship, contrary or additional to those enjoined in Scripture; have, like the Pharisees, "bound heavy burdens and grievous to he borne, and laid them on men's shoulders, while they themselves would not move them with one of their fingers ;" and have enforced the rigid observance of these commandments of men, by all the force and terrors which they possessed or could command. Like the shepherds of ancient Israel, they have scattered

*Tit. i. 11. 2 Pet. ii. 15.

the flock by ruling over it "with force and with cruelty." Forgetting the nature and limits of the power with which they have been entrusted, and their own complaints against papal and prelatical usurpations, protestant and presbyterian courts have acted as Lords over God's heritage," trampled on the sacred rights of conscience, stripped the Christian people of liberties which their divine Master had conferred on them, and which they were in the undisputed possession of for several centuries after his ascension, intruded hirelings on them for overseers, and driven those who resisted their arbitrary measures to seek the food of their souls in separate communions.-The policy of statesmen has often combined with the ambition of churchmen in measures which have tended to divide the church. Jeroboam erected his schismatical worship at Dan and Bethel to keep himself and his family on the throne of Israel; for, said he, "if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of, the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah *." The support which civil rulers have given to corrupt systems of religion and to oppressive administrations in the church, may very frequently be traced to this origin.

While the church has been frequently divided by a spirit of unwarrantable and arbitrary impositions, so, on the other hand, the same effect has

* 1 Kings xii. 27.

been sometimes produced by aversion to the strictness of ecclesiastical communion, and impatience of that submission which is fully warranted by the word of God. When a church has - been constituted conformably to the Scripture pattern, makes a faithful confession of the truth, and maintains good order and discipline agreeably to the laws of Christ, a divisive spirit is evinced by those who factiously exclaim against its severity, enter into schemes, open or covert, for relaxing its bonds, or form themselves into another society connected by looser and more general ties; whether this be done to obtain greater latitude to themselves, or with the view of uniting persons of opposite religious sentiments and practices in one general and catholic communion. This follows from the doctrine already laid down respecting the true bonds of ecclesiastical unity. In like manner the peace of the church may be broken by the insubordination and turbulence of the Christian people, refusing subjection to those pastors who are regularly set over them, and who act within the due limits of their authority, and setting up the ancient cry, "All the congregation are holy, every one of them." In this case the event often remarkably verifies the prediction of the apostle: "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth to fables*."

*2 Tim. iv. 3, 4.