the man, who preaches and prays, nor the people, are at all concerned. One sleeps, another chats to the next sitter, and another bows and grins to some fool at a distance. But they are at church; and that is enough for him who bought them with his blood, and is to judge them. If the lawyer so strenuously contends for his guinea, is heaven a less fee for the clergyman? If the lawyer roars and sweats for a character among the attending crowd, why shall not much rather the minister of God labour for a character among the best of men, and among the host of heaven? The word of God, as it lies printed in a book, continues to be but a dead letter, and on the tongue of an unfeeling reader, passes for an unmeaning sound, until the spirit of the speaker goes with it. Then it is that he speaks above himself, that he breathes the air of heaven, and his animated soul touches the souls of his hearers with fire from the altar of God. He glows with sacred warmth, and they are kindled. Why are we brought together in our public services, but that, like fewel accumulated, we may burn and blaze upward together? There is a unison of souls, which spreads itself from tear to tear, and from heart to heart, at a well acted tragedy. Why is it not felt in the house of God, on Good Friday, when the death of him who gave his blood for our sins, the infinite tragedy of all tragedies, is celebrated? Can it originate from any better source than the Spirit of God, or communicate itself through any other channel than that of the man appointed by the church to utter the Scriptures, to preach the sermon, and offer up the addresses of a congregation, all deeply impressed with a grateful, but woful sense of what is doing? Ye unfeeling wretches, minister, and people, fly from such celebrations. Ye have no business there. Fly back to the world, where you left your worthless hearts, and let the stone out of the wall' in God's house, and the beam out of the timber,' cry aloud, Woe to him, who builds on the earth, and forgets the Saviour of his soul. him, who hath a tear, neither for his own sins, nor for him, who died to atone for them. Woe to the goat-herd first, and then to his sinister flock.

Woe to

154. A close conformity with the established religion of our country, if it enjoins nothing contrary to, nor withholds any thing made necessary to salvation by, the word of God, is a duty so essential to both the principles and spirit of our religion, that not to communicate with it, is to renounce both. As to its principles, it is a leading axiom, that Christ is the Prince of peace, that

his religion is the peace of God, and that he came to settle peace among mankind, first, religious, and by that, every other species of peace. And as to its spirit, let us attend to what the Holy Ghost hath said. 'I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, be ye like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife, or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.' This injunction is laid upon our consciences purely because the necessary things to be judged of, are made too plain to be mistaken by common sense, insomuch, that dissensions among Christians never did, never can proceed from any thing else, but tempers and designs, wholly alien from the Christian spirit. By this,' saith Christ, 'shall all men know, that ye are my disciples, if you love one another.' Can they then be the disciples of Christ, who so hate one another, that although they judge alike in the fundamentals of his religion, will not celebrate his service in the same house, nor the memorials of his death at the same table? He himself is love, and his religion is love. By what infernal art is it then, that his religion is made a pretence for substituting hatred in the place of that love? Such hatred too, as hath frequently dipped our swords in the blood of one another? Infidels are ever ready to foment our quarrels, to cast them in our teeth, and to make sport of them, as a thorough refutation of all our professions. The crime of dissension must lie somewhere, either at the door of the established church, or at that of such as differ from it. Now, as to the establishment, in England and Ireland, it differs not in its creed or confession of faith from that which our dissenting brethren drew up for themselves at Westminster; and, therefore, there was, then at least, no reason in regard to principle for any division. But our dissenters so hated the government of the church by bishops, though the plain appointment of Christ and the Holy Spirit, that nothing could please them but a new kind of government, of their own invention, wherein the laity might have a share. They also took offence at our Liturgy, though compiled of all that piety which had warmed the church from the days of Christ to the time of the Reformation; though exactly modelled by, and mixed with, the

holy Scriptures; and though thoroughly purged of Popery and superstition. To this they were led by violent pretensions to inspiration, exhibited in extemporary prayers and preachings, now absolutely exploded by every body of common sense and honesty among them, excepting by new upstart sects, which, for a time carry off from them and us a number of very giddy people. Since the first establishment of Christianity under Constantine, no other service of equal purity so conformable to the word of God, to Christian charity, or to sound reason, hath ever been known, in any country under heaven, as that of England and Ireland. Although it stood in need of no defence, it hath been so amply defended, that no church ever afforded the dissenters from it so little pretence or excuse. Yet justice must be done to the sincerity of such as openly follow another way of worship, compared with whom, the dissenters who go to church, and nevertheless seldom communicate with it, but rail at it, and use their utmost endeavours to undermine and overthrow it, are certainly the most detestable of mankind. To this they are led by a species of infidelity, proceeding from, as they think it, the too expensive support of the established clergy, which they see, in too great a measure, sacrificed to pride and luxury. Bad as the choice is that is made for the ministry of young illiterate puppies, crowding into the church for a morsel of bread, and obtruded by their atheistical families; far worse would it be, if the people themselves were to choose their clergy; and then such bickerings and bloodshed would attend that choice, as often did in more impartial times than these, when the most ignorant of the laity took upon them to judge for the church. If, at any rate, we are to have an insufficient and degenerate succession of clergy, it is best to have it quietly. In an age like this, when the mass, out of which the ministry must be made, is so enormously corrupted, it is rather wonderful that we have any good clergyman among us (and some we have), than that we have so few. The constitution of a church is to be considered, and not the behaviour of its clergy, when conformity with it, or nonconformity, is under deliberation. A clergy duly authorized to preach God's word, and administer his sacraments, church well constituted, demand conformity on principles, not to be shaken by their particular defects, while they continue themselves to act in conformity to the stated rules of its constitution. At different times, they may be a very different kind of men, or may be thought so by their people, though they are still but the

same. The constitution of the church, however, being uniformly the same, hath uniformly the same divine right to the conformity of all who live in the country where such church is established. The clergy are but men, and have their gifts in frail and earthen vessels.' To conform or dissent therefore on account of their private and particular behaviour, is to pay no respect to Christ, the head of every church, at least of every church constituted on his principles, and founded on his authority. Conformity in matters of religion should be the effect of three things, first, a sound and candid judgment, regulated by the word of God, without any mixture of fancy or prejudice; secondly, a peaceable and charitable disposition, for peace and charity are among the very first essentials of Christianity; and, thirdly, obedience to the Almighty Source of order and power. Nothing can apologise for dissension from the established church of any country, but a constitutional departure of that church from these principles whereby it is to be examined and judged of. Whenever it is forgotten, that the church of Christ is a society, whereof he himself is the sole head; whenever his disciples cease to be social in regard to one another; or at all prefer their own humours and tempers to his authority; they cease to be his disciples, and fly asunder into divisions, equally wild, uncharitable, and rebellious, in regard to him. At the council of Trent, forced on the pope by the emperor, the king of France, and the loud call for reformation of almost the whole Christian world, the pope attempted, by his creatures in that assembly, to have the bishops decreed, non jure divino, but in this was disappointed. In the mean time, the cry of Calvinists was, No king, no bishop. Accordingly, they established a republican form of government, both in church and state, wherever they had it in their power. These attempts of the pope and Calvinists, so alarmed the kings and bishops, as to put a stop to the intended reformation, how little to the credit of all the parties concerned, may be easily judged. Since that, the work of reformation hath been left to individuals, sometimes, but not always, duly qualified for the undertaking. Although in all sorts and sects among us there is a general falling off from the principles and spirit of Christianity, yet among our dissenters there are so many men so sound in the former, and so warm in the latter, that it may still be reasonably hoped, they may yet be prevailed on by the Prince of Peace to join with the established church, in which their piety is much wanted. Piety and peace

should go together. Truth and charity should never be found asunder in the breast of a Christian. They ought to find in this union a sweet encouragement from the nature of our Liturgy, whereof all the prayers and addresses are offered up to the throne of grace in and through Jesus Christ, our only Mediator, with the Father, who saith, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, believing, ye shall receive;' whereas few of their present ministers remember, in their extemporary prayers, the mediatorial power, with the Father, of a Son, in whose Divinity they do not believe. If there are any such among us (and it is thought there are many), the prescript form of our Liturgy, from which they cannot, dare not depart, the efficacy of Christian prayer stands forth in its full force for the devotion of every real Christian. Comc, dearly beloved in Christ, let the love of God towards you, which passeth all understanding of divines and statesmen, and your love of him, which should be suitable to his, beget in you, that uniform charity towards us, your Christian brethren, which is the very soul of our religion, which thinketh no ill, which believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.' Are not you and we worshippers of the same God? Have we not one and the same book of God to guide us therein? Have we not one Father, one Saviour, one Comforter? Are not our hearts animated by one Spirit? Or is that Spirit divided? Can he be a Spirit of love in one man, and a Spirit of hatred in another? How then can we keep at a distance from one another in that very office of life wherein we ought to be most closely united? How did the primitive Christians, persecuted by Jews and Pagans, wish for the happy privilege of serving God, which we enjoy, without disturbance from the enemies of Christ? And do we enjoy it, only to disturb and distract it? Only to tear in pieces the body of Christ for petty differences in opinion, which, on both sides, we confess to be insignificant trifles, in comparison of those saving fundamentals, in which we are perfectly agreed? Foreigners think us the most factious ple on earth in point of politics, the most apt to complain of our laws, and the administration of them, though we are our own legislators. Yet we crowd to the courts of law and justice; sit with one another on either jury; do right or wrong with unanimity; assemble at the theatre or tavern; buy and sell to one another; as if we had forgotten our schismatical divisions, I hope, not often, as if we had left our very religion behind us. Strange! that we should shew ourselves, notwithstanding our factious dis

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