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"ordinance, and in the true communion "of saints, at such seasons more espe cially they believe, that Jesus the Lord "makes himself known to them in the breaking of bread. But the fulfilment of "this promise, and the spiritual influxes "of light and joy, which the divine presence is adapted to impart, they do not "look for at the hands of a priest, nor " even from any efficacy in the emblems"."

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12. Of the Sacraments generally, it is asked, "Where is the promise, which so "connects the sovereign bestowment of "divine favour with these performances as "to justify the representation, that the rite "of Baptism, or that of the Lord's Supper, "to say nothing of apocryphal institutions, was designed to be a visible and certain

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n

Conder, p. 480, 481. "The importance attached "to the character of the administrator, rests on pre"cisely the same grounds as in the case of conducting "the other public services; and the office of adminis"tering is restricted to the pastor, not as invested with

any sacerdotal functions, but simply as a ruler of the "church, upon whom as such devolves the spiritual "cognizance of its members." Ibid.

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sign of grace, delivered into our hands

as the effect of the ordinance? Is there a "single passage of Scripture, is there any

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thing analogous in the divine proceed

ings, which warrants the presumption? "Are spiritual blessings in the New Cove"nant suspended on any other conditions, ❝ than the sense of need, and the prayer “of faith, or can any thing else be regarded as the means of obtaining them?" "Protestants have reason to be jealous of " a word, which in the hands of Romanists "has wrought so much mischief, the theological character of which is so ambiguous, and which has still the effect in "the minds of many persons of throwing

66

66

an obscurity around the nature of divine ❝ institutions. What Sacraments are or are not, is a point which is hardly worth "the pains of determining: for to what purpose is the word restricted in its application, if the things, which once went by this name, are under any form re❝tained 1?"

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• Conder, p. 432.

p Ibid. p. 437.

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We are informed of " the virtue of dis

senting from" the Established Church, "and of bearing a public and decided tes"timony to its antichristian spirit and con"stitution"." An attempt has also been recently made "to convince young per"sons in Dissenting congregations, that "the arguments against lay-conformity are "strong and unanswerable'," not without expressing "surprise and concern, "that young men of piety and talents, "educated among Protestant Dissenters, "should at any time find it practicable to "become ministers "" in the Church of England. This attempt arose from observing that the Dissenters had greatly "lost sight of the genuine reasons of Non"conformity," .. and that "several indi"viduals have allowed themselves to de"sert the profession of religion, to which they had been habituated from their "childhood, and to join the Establish"ment t." The attempt has so far suc

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9 Jones, vol. ii. p. 182. P. xiv.

t Ibid. P.

vii. x.

r

Winter, p. xiii. s Ibid.

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"certain

ceeded, that the Author has "knowledge, that his publication has already, to a considerable extent, accom"plished his design by awakening atten❝tion to the subject, and by fixing the "judgment and the practical decisions of some, who were halting between two opi“nions","

These efforts should provoke the emulation of the Churchman, and let him not fear to discuss "the question of scriptural "precedents, and the authority of the "New Testament *." Let him instruct his household in such sound principles of an apostolical Church as may counteract the zeal of seeing children " enlightened, con"scientious Dissenters y." Let him agree with the Dissenter in acknowledging the importance of the question, and the duty of endeavouring "to arrive at a settled "judgment as to the laws of Christ in re"ference to the form and order, and dis

cipline of his Church':" and lastly, let

u Winter, p. xvii. xviii. x Ibid.

p. X. y Bicheno,

p. iv.

z Winter, p. 15.

him agree with him in referring "the mat"ter at issue to the determination of the "New Testament." Let him also vie with him in the zeal and assiduity with which he prosecutes the inquiry and publishes the result, and strive to put an end to the equivocal insinuation, that "the "Churchman examines the merits of the 66 cause, and on conviction becomes a Dis"senter; the Dissenter disclaims examination, and so becomes a Churchman ". The principal questions at issue c the right of private judgment; the authority of national Establishments for religion; the nature of Christian unity, and the

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a Winter, p. 25. b Ibid. p. 94.

are,

c "The principles of Nonconformity, as respects the "constitution of Christian Churches, are briefly these: "the purely voluntary nature of religious union; the "necessary independence of societies so originating; "the spirituality of the objects they are exclusively de"signed to promote; the moral nature of the authority "to which they are subject, as opposed to all admix"ture of secular power; and finally, the unalienable "right vested in every such society, to choose its spi"ritual pastors and teachers." Conder, p. 248. see also p. 302.