cently, and in order, and for the edification of believers, and for the glory of God. From these it is impossible that they ever would, or that we ever can, safely deviate. Had they been placed, therefore, in circumstances where the honour of the Saviour, and the salvation of his people would have been injured, rather than promoted, by a stubborn adherence to the course they had hitherto pursued for the regulation of the Church, we cannot but suppose that in such cases, they would have relaxed from the severity of their ordinary rules, and been more anxious to secure the holy ends for which Christianity was revealed; than to maintain inviolate the absolute uniformity of the instrumental means by which it was to be propagated. But wherever, on the other hand, the preservation of one uniform government in the Church could be made compatible with the attainment of man's holiness and faith, there, as we can see no reason why the Apostles should vary from their general practice, so we conceive that they would never have introduced or sanctioned a variation.

If considerations like these be just when applied to the Apostles, by the same considerations should all other men be regulated, both in their own conduct and their opinions upon that of others. There is nothing but a firm and fervent persuasion of the mind, that the interests of Christian truth and righteousness cannot effectually

be promoted without a breach of the external discipline and government of the Church, that can justify a violation of its uniformity. Wherever, therefore, such a violation has been made, it well becomes those who have caused, or continue it, to be well assured that the honour of Christ, and the spiritual welfare of his people, demanded the introduction of the change, or still require it to be prolonged. If upon this point, they have met, deliberated, and are completely satisfied, it is neither for them to doubt, nor for us hastily to deny, to the ministrations of such a Church, that inestimable blessing which the promise of Christ's presence conveys to all his duly authorized ministers, even unto the end of the world. If the deviation from that form of Church government which a pious and enlightened imitation of the practice of the Apostles had established for so many generations, be such as the Apostles themselves would have introduced under similar circumstances, we may charitably conclude that it is a deviation which has neither destroyed the efficacy of the Christian sacraments to those believers among whom it exists, nor broken their bond of union with the members, and of communion in the privileges of the holy and universal Church.

At the same time, when we reflect how strongly the want of unity among Christians has operated to hinder the progress of Christianity; when we consider how the Heathen, and the Mahometan, and

the unbeliever, are inclined to interpret a mere want of external uniformity of discipline, into disunion upon the very essence of our religion, it becomes us most carefully to labour after a perfect conformity both in doctrine and in government.

The two lessons which we finally learn from what has been urged upon this subject, are, first, a lesson of sincere and steady attachment to that form of ecclesiastical polity which has been established, or rather perpetuated amongst ourselves; and, secondly, a lesson of forbearance both in thought and language, towards those changes which have been introduced into other Churches.

In our own country, a studious imitation of the apostolical practice is in perfect consistency with the apostolical principles. Order and edification, Christ's glory and his people's spiritual improvement, are equally secured by that form of episcopal government under which its ministers are placed, and where a due subordination and control, while they check the waywardness, do neither impede the substantial usefulness, nor forbid the most active exertions of individual zeal. Our people have a respect, if not a reverence, for their ancient, and their scriptural form of ecclesiastical polity, and are ready to receive at the hands of their established teachers all the instruction and consolation that religion can afford. In our own land there never has been, nor is now, any desire for any extensive change. There may

be some blemishes all would wish to remove. There may be enough of evil, and negligence, and unthankfulness for our blessings, to cause even a merciful Saviour at once to punish and to purify us by the furnace of adversity. But though afflicted, we trust we shall not be permitted to be cast down, and though persecuted, there is still so much truth and righteousness in our Church, as to make it a sin to forsake her in her distress, and a duty to uphold her through her trials,—a duty only the more sacred, because of the danger in which she stands.

But, whatever be the affection which our form of sound doctrine, our holy form of prayer, and our scriptural and apostolical method of government demand for our own Church, they demand no judgment or condemnation from us upon that form of government which prevails in others. There are some truths proclaimed so loudly, and delineated so clearly in the Gospel, that we cannot permit any to renounce or corrupt them without showing them their iniquity and telling them that their heresies cut them off from Christ's favour. But the mode of regulating the ministry of the Church is not one of these. It is too faintly delineated to afford more than a sufficient ground for us to act upon in our own case. Nowhere in the Gospel is a perfect uniformity of ecclesiastical polity so indispensably required as to make it meet for any Christian to pass an absolute sentence of

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excommunication upon a brother who differs from himself. To his own master he standeth or falleth, and our duty lies rather in persuading him to agreement than in urging condemnation because he disagrees with ourselves. For we have no right, and we should have no inclination, to make the gate of the Gospel more strait, or the way to God's favour more narrow than the express revelations of the Redeemer imperatively demand.

We beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you hold firmly but charitably to that Church under whose ministry you have been placed; firmly, because the Scriptures justify you in the full assurance that to your clergy the promise of Christ's presence in all its power and blessedness belongs; charitably, because you know not from God's word how far men may err in the circumstantials of religion without absolutely forfeiting their claims to the Redeemer's aid. Leave it to him to determine at the day of his final judgment, what the Gospel has not positively determined for us in our present state; and pray that all who call themselves Christians may be so led into the way of truth, that, both in the faith of the heart and in the outward forms of their Church's polity, they may be more and more conformed to the mind of Christ Jesus our Lord, that we may be one flock under his guidance upon earth, and be gathered together by his mercy into one fold of glory in heaven.