:

There is another branch of the great question of Utility, upon which it will be expedient to say a few words.

The real dispute between us, if we get to its very kernel, is this: Whether an union of all the churches of one communion, in one country, into a national society, invested with powers, conceded by all, for the uniform regulation and government of the whole, is lawful and expedient.

We have said that this is the real matter in dispute. Other points of difference are frequently superadded, but this is the great question at issue. Episcopacy, for instance is often objected to; but the absence of episcopacy does not take away Mr. James's opposition. There is no national episcopacy in Scotland; but Mr. J. objects as entirely to the sway of the General Assembly, as to the rule of Diocesan Bishops. The church in Scotland, too, abjures the headship or rule of any temporal prince; but neither does this reconcile Mr. J. to its authority. Nothing, in fact, but the absence of any and every degree of unity and agreement will satisfy him, Let every distinct congregation of Christians in the whole empire stand in full and entire independence of all other bodies; let each find out a religion of its own, and settle its own method of professing that religion,-let there be ten thousand different standards and styles and variations of Christianity, in the country, and Mr. James is then content. No other church than that which you find within the four walls of a meeting-house, and no other government than the whim of the individuals who may happen to assemble in it; this is Mr. James's notion of the form and order of

"the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

Such is Mr. James's real principle; but he overlays and bedecks it, as is the usual practice among dissenting writers, with a variety of charges, by way of garnish, against those particular points of our English episcopal government, which appear to him to be most vulnerable. The strength of most of these objections, however, lies principally on the surface. They are not practical grievances, but ancient phrases and expressions merely, which to modern ears sound strange, and to the ignorant and inconsiderate may convey alarm. That the church, for instance, should be declared to have ' power to decree rites and ceremonies,' is one of these bugbears, and a right ancient and hackneyed complaint it is. But what is the practical grievance of this rule to me, as a churchman ? The rites and ceremonies of the church are already decreed and settled, and my judgment assents to them, I think them fitting and proper, and I agree to their use. As to my alarm about the future employment of this power, by the imposition of any new rites upon my conscience, to which I might not be able to submit, it is evident that nothing can be more groundless. And shall I leave the church now, because she may possibly do something wrong at some future time. Surely it will be enough for me to dissent from superstitious rites and antiscriptural impositions, when those rites and impositions are attempted to be palmed upon me. No such attempt has been made for centuries past; but the church confines itself to the promulgation of fitting prayers for national wants, and

the fixing of occasional days of national humiliation or thanksgiving, when national judgments or mercies seem to call for them. This is the real state of things, as to this very alarming 'power to decree rites and ceremonies; and with this state of things I am content.

Then we have some awful mandates and canons of the church, touching excommunication and what not. But look at this point, also, in a practical view, and what does it amount to? What is excommunication? It is just separation, neither more nor less. church declares in her canons, that any one who repudiates her doctrines or her form of government, is ipso facto excommunicated.'

And the

What can the church do otherwise ?

And what, indeed, do dissenters themselves do otherwise? Does not every little dissenting congregation assume the very same power as that assumed by the church, and enforce it by the very same penalties. Does not every such congregation decide upon the rites and ceremonies, or in other words, the mode and mannerin which they choose to worship God; and upon a refusal to conform to these, and to assent to the doctrines held by the majority, do they not expel, or, in fact, excommunicate, the refractory member?

A distinction is indeed attempted to be drawn by Mr. James, between the rites and ceremonies decreed by the church, and those adopted by dissenting bodies. But his distinction turns merely upon quantity, upon number. It is a question merely of extent. He allows that the dissenters, as well as the church, have “ usages which cannot plead express command or example,' but then he trusts that these uncommanded usages are “in accordance with God's word," and are "designed to carry into effect some law which Christ, as the supreme legislator, has enjoined." Now in these words, we find briefly stated,

the very ground upon which all the rites and ceremonies of the church rest. If we did not believe that they were in accordance with God's word, and were designed to carry into effect some command of Christ,' we should never entertain the idea of adhering to, or defending them. Our adherence, then, to the forms of this establishment, rests securely upon the very principle promulgated by Mr. James.

There is, therefore, as we have already said, but one substantial ground of difference between us; and that is, the preference which Mr. James retains for multitudinous and multifarious churches, over one united national church.

Now we are fully prepared to maintain the superior utility of the latter; both with a view to the past, and also to the future. For, to begin with the past ;—

I. EXPERIENCE tells us that the most successful and prosperous attempt that has yet been made, to maintain a sound and living christianity among a people, has been made by a firmly-established and strictly-defined national church.

We refuse to be judged by any example drawn from ill-constituted schemes of this kind. If, for instance, in Germany or Switzerland, something like establishments have been attempted, without due care to guard the standards of doctrine; and if, through departure from those standards, the faith of Christ has been lost or obscured in those parts of the world, how does that affect our argument! Monarchy is not to be given up because there have been tyrants on the throne ; nor liberty because it has sometimes passed into licentiousness. We turn to England and to Scotland, and we say without hesitation, that after every allowance is made for the errors and faults of each system, and for the abuses which have prevailed in each,-still the experience of two centuries is full and satisfactory on the point of the great bene

sfit derived from both of these Establishments. The world has no brighter spot, at this moment, to shew, nor has Christianity greater strength in any other part of the globe, than in that, which, according to Mr. James, has been cursed for three centuries with a false, unscriptural, and anti-christian perversion of the Christian faith.

.. And does the doubt never cross the mind of these gentlemen, how it is, that their pure and popular form of Christianity should now have been in actual contest for more than two hundred years, with the falsehood and popery and tyranny of the Establishment, and yet should not, in all this time, have atchieved a splendid triumph!! Nay, that it should even have retrograded; for we suppose no one will deny that dissent was more powerful and more popular in this country, between 1630 and 1650, than it is at this day. And, has too, the great Head of the Church really been so long witnessing such a contest as Mr. James describes, and witnessing it in silence? Does Mr. J. really suppose that He is indifferent to the affairs of his church, or indolent, or wrong-judging?

a

No! But his allowance of these differences among his people, apparently tending to prejudice the ungodly against his cause, but yet, on the other hand, stirring up his own to emulation, as it will one day be proved to be both infinitely wise and infinitely gracious, should also check the decided tone of condemnation in which they are too apt, on both sides, to indulge. We draw only this conclusion, from a retrospect of the whole struggle, that while the Lord of the Church sees it good still to permit the existence of these differences, he nevertheless does not look upon the errors and failings of the Establishment in the light in which Mr. James is inclined to view them, or he would long since have given to dissenters that triumph which is yet, after the

struggle of two centuries, only in their visionary prospect.

We deny not, nor wish to depreciate, the benefits of this kind which the church, has received from dissenters. But their writers are too fond of claiming more than truth will allow. Christianity had fallen to a very low ebb in England at the beginning of the last century. The dissenters are always anxious to claim the honour of having been the first to awake, and of having aroused the establishment from her slumber. They talk of Whitfield and of Wesley, as if these special messengers of mercy were selected from their ranks. But the fact is directly the reverse. These heralds of the gospel, commissioned to an extraordinary work, could not, it is true, be limited or bound by any human system. But the one simple fact is not to be gainsaid, that it was from the bosom of the church that they issued; and that their trumpet of alarm was sounded as much to those who were without, as to those who were within, the pale of the establishment.

We have left ourselves scarcely space to speak of the other point ;—

II. ANTICIPATON,-which to our view, repels the idea of overthrowing the National Church, as a means of promoting Christianity.

America, as we have already said, proceeds most unsatisfactorily in the path so much approved by Mr. James. We do conscientiously believe, on the best information we can obtain, that Christianity, with all its triumphs, is yet numerically retrograding in that country, and that nothing but a special effusion of the Holy Spirit can save it from rapid decay.

But let us look homewards. Does not the objection meet us daily, on the part of the sceptic and the doubtful:what is Christianity? where is it to be found? who is to be understood to speak its dictates? If we reply The Bible,' we are immediately met by the

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rejoinder,But why can you not yourselves agree what the doctrines of the Bible are?'

Should we not wish then, rather to draw Christians together under one banner; and not to destroy the only consistent, steady, ancient exhibition of Christianity that we possess, and to break into ten thousand fragments, the visible body of Christ. Comprehension, then, and union, are our first desire; at the same time we doubt, as was stated in our last essay, if any important change of position is at all needful to bring about that union. Mr. James, on the other hand, would rase to the ground every vestige of a national establishment. Demolishing all the steeples, and turning into meeting-houses all our churches, he would leave it to the people of every parish, or rather, we suppose, to the lessees of the building which was formerly the church,―to say, what kind of worship, Episcopal, Congregationalist, Quaker,orMuggletonian, they would set up in the said building during the remainder of their lease. And this kind of exhibition Mr. James judges to be the best calculated to present to the world, a specimen of pure, scriptural, undefiled Christianity!!!

We find not, however, anything in the least resembling this state of things in the New Testament. We find, indeed, instances of disorder and irregularity, but we find them also speedily repressed by the Apostles. The idea of an isolated congregation governed by itself, and adopting or discarding rites or ceremonies, creeds or doctrines, at its own will and pleasure, is altogether contrary to the whole tenor of scripture. Every thing in the inspired records of the apostolic times, bears in an opposite direction. Every thing speaks of an -unity, an uniformity, an authority; a general, central, and comprehensive body, among whom dwelt the truth, and to whom reference was to be had, when difference or difficulty

.

arose. Let the bearing of the following texts be considered, with a view to this question:

Acts xv. 28." It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things," &c.

1 Cor. xi. 16. "But if any man be contentious, (if any man persist in contending on this point, let it suffice to say) we have no such custom, neither the churches of God."

2 Cor. xiii. 10. "I write these things, being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me.”

Titus i. 5. "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest let in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee."

Titus i. 15. "These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject.

Hebrews xii. 17. ""

Obey them which have the rule over you, and submit yourselves.”

It will probably be asked, do we claim the power of an apostle for the rulers of churches in the present day. We answer, No! but this we do claim; the existence of an unity, a generality, a comprehension, an authority, in the primitive church, which would be entirely impossible upon Mr. James's independent or congregational plan. We observe, too, an authority assumed in these apostolic dicta, and not only assumed, but also deputed to one who was not an Apostle. We know, too, that the church, thus constituted, long continued so subject to rule, and order, and authority. It may be doubtful at what period the independent scheme first arose to view, but it is beyond doubt that it was unknown, both in form and in spirit, in the apostolic days, and for a long period after.

THE kind providence of God cast my lot on the Fast Day in a retired country village. I felt thankful at thus being exempt from the din of impiety and blasphemy, which I feared would prevail in the city: and I found the observance of the day, amidst the simplicity of a rural parish, to be a spiritual festival. It was more to me "than my necessary food." Few, if any days of my life have passed away more rapidly, and none more delight fully. The savour of its remembrance will long be sweet to my soul.

At half-past six in the morning, while the louring clouds spread a sombre shade over the dawn, in good keeping, as it were, with the character of the day, a cottage meeting for prayer was held in the humble abode of one of the poorer members of the church, with the sanction of the incumbent. Communicants of established character for piety and prudence, poured out their hearts in humble, fervent supplications, introducing between their several prayers a suitable hymn or psalm. It was an earnest of the blessing, which was thus sought and which abundantly rested upon the day, to witness and in some measure to share in the fervour of the simple, but earnest cries, which then arose to heaven. It was like the fragrant savour of the first morning sacrifice. These lowly children of poverty, thought 1, together with their offerings, are unknown to the world: and if they were known, it would only be to encounter its scorn: but on them, and on multitudes of others like them, now assembled in prostrate groups around the mercy-seat, the propitiated eye of Omniscience is resting. While Jehovah's ear turns away in wrath from the eloquence of senates, where his truth is despised, and his providence denied,

it listens with complacency to the prayers of these cottagers, who tremble at his word, and deprecate his anger. Every petitioner implored an especial blessing upon the pastor of the village flock, and on the services in which he was about to be engaged with his people. I have no doubt that he experienced a happy answer to these petitions, in a more than common unction from the Holy One throughout the day.

At half-past eight the clergyman met his communicants in a spacious school room, and devoted about three quarters of an hour to prayer, and a cursory exposition of the fifty-first psalm, directing his re marks to the peculiar character and profession of his audience, as holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,' and therefore called upon to take an earnest part in the penitential observances of the national fast. At the close of his address he proposed a little plan of charity, commemorative of the solemnity, which had called them together, and correspondent with its design. He suggested the formation of a COMMUNICANT'S SOCIETY, consisting only of communicating members of the church of England, for the relief of the poorer members in times of sickness, and after they have passed the common limit of human life. The suggestion was embraced with evident delight, for those with the very smallest means readily gave in their names as subscribers, and the rest cheerfully acceded to the plan, as forming a new link in their connexion with each other." For we being many, are one bread and one body: for we all are partakers of that one bread:" and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."

When this company of suppli