2. As to the hierarchical constitution of the Anglican Church.

3. As to matters of ritual, especially the use of liturgies which the Church of Scotland rejects.

4. As to the doctrines of sacramental grace and sacerdotal absolution, implied in the offices of the Anglican Church.

5. As to the whole system of discipline, Ecclesiastical Courts, &c.

6. As to certain points of Calvinistic theology.

The INDEPENDENTS differ from the Presbyterians chiefly in three points, namely:

1. As to ordination, and the liberty of preaching.

2. As to the political form and constitution of church government, and the conditions of church communion. 3. As to the grounds and limits of religious liberty. "Ordination alone," say the Independents, " without the precedent consent of the Church by those who formerly have been advanced by virtue of that power they have received by their ordination, doth not constitute any person a church officer, or communicate office power unto him." The Presbyterians on the other hand deny that the mere invitation and choice of the people could confer the pastoral office, or that they are even pre-requisites. The Independents seem to have identified the ministerial function with the pastoral office; and argued that it was absurd to ordain an office without a province to exercise the office in. Their opponents viewed the Christian ministry more as an order invested with certain inherent powers; a faculty or profession endowed with peculiar privileges, the admission into which required to be jealously guarded; and this power and authority they conceive could be transmitted by those of the order. All approved candidates for the ministerial office among the Presbyterians, are ordained without reference to any local change; among the Independents no probationer is ordained till he has been appointed to the pastoral office. The first Independent or Congregational Church in England was established by a Mr. Jacob, A. D. 1616, though it is asserted that a Mr. Robinson was the founder

of this sect, of which Dr. John Owen, Dr. Isaac Watts, Dr. Doddridge, and Job Orton were members.

The following extracts are from the discourses of Robert Hall, who, though a Baptist, dissented from most of his brethren on the subject of strict communion. He was a preacher both of Baptist and Independent congregations, but he did not hesitate to avow that "he had more fellowship of feeling for an Independent or a Presbyterian than for a close communion Baptist." His system of theological tenets was on the model of what has come to be denominated "Moderate Calvinism." With regard to the distinctive Calvinistic doctrine of Predestination, "I cannot," says his biographer, "answer for the precise terms in which he would have stated it, but I presume he would have accepted those employed by the Church of England. In preaching, he very rarely made any express reference to that doctrine."

"Jesus Christ did not come, let it be remembered, to establish a mere external morality, that his followers might be screened from human laws and human justice, for human laws will take care of this. The holy institution of Christianity has a nobler object, that of purifying our hearts and regulating our behavior by the love of God. In the most practical accounts of the proceedings of the last day given in the Scriptures, the excellency which is represented as being a criterion and distinguishing feature of the disciple of Christ, and which He will acknowledge, is: Christian benevolence-love to man manifested in the relief of the poor. The Apostle St. John has given us a most sublime description of the love of God, when he says, 'God is love ;' love is not so much an attribute of His nature as His very essence; the spirit of Himself. Christian benevolence is not only the image of God,' but is peculiarly an imitation of Christ."do not ask, my brethren, what particular virtue you have, but how much are you under the influence of Him? for just so much virtue we have, as we have of His spirit and character." "Our Saviour places the acceptance of men, not upon their dispositions, but upon their actions; upon what they have done, not upon what they have merely believed or felt, or in any undefined state of mind."-"I am

"I

persuaded that the cause of the ruin of professing Christians does not arise so much from a mistake of the doctrines of Christianity, as from a low idea of Christian morals; in abstaining from certain crimes and disorders through fear of the loss of character and of punishment, without reflecting on the spirit of that holy religion which we profess."-"Christ went about doing good, not as an occasional exercise, but as his employment; it was the one thing which he did. Though possessed of infinite power, he never employed it in resenting or retaliating an injury. He was pre-eminently devout. His was an active life; it was not the life of a solitary monk. That devotion which terminates in itself, is a luxury which sometimes perverts the principles of benevolence to a pernicious purpose. Let us rather recede from being called Christians than forget the great symbol of our profession, love to one another."

LETTER VIII.

PARTICULAR BAPTISTS, SUB AND SUPRALAPSARIANS, SANDEMANIANS.

HAVING now given some account of the principal Calvinistic sects, I shall conclude by mentioning a few of those less numerous societies, which, whilst agreeing in the peculiar doctrines of Calvin, differ upon other points. THE PARTICULAR BAPTISTS, agreeing with the General Baptists on most other practices and doctrines, differ from them on this. The separation took place in the year 1616, when a controversy on the subject of infant baptism having arisen among the Baptists, one portion calling itself the "Independent Congregation" seceded, embraced the Calvinistic doctrine, and became the first Particular Baptists: others, who were in general attached to the opinions of Calvin, concerning the decrees of God and Divine Grace, were not entirely agreed concerning the manner of explaining the doctrine of the Divine decrees. The greater part believed that God only permitted the first man to fall into transgression, without particularly predetermining his fall: these were termed SUBLAPSARIANS. But others again maintained that "God, in order to exercise and display his justice and his free mercy, had decreed from all eternity the transgression of Adam, and so ordered the course of events, that our first parents could not possibly avoid their fall." These were termed

SUPRALAPSARIANS.

There is a modern sect that originated in Scotland, about 1728, termed Glassites, from its founder Mr. John Glass, who was expelled by the Synod from the Church of Scotland, for maintaining that the "kingdom of Christ was not of this world." His adherents then formed themselves into churches, conformable in their institution and discipline to what they apprehended to be the plan

of the first churches recorded in the New Testament. Soon after the year 1755, Mr. John Sandeman (an elder in one of these congregations in Scotland), attempted to prove that "Faith is neither more nor less than a simple assent to the Divine testimony, concerning Jesus Christ delivered for the offences of men and raised again for their justification, as recorded in the New Testament." He also mentioned that the word Faith or Belief, is constantly used by the apostles to signify what is denoted by it in common conversation, i. e., a persuasion of the truth of any proposition, and that there is no difference between believing any common testimony, and believing the apostolic testimony, except that which results from the testimony itself, and the Divine authority on which it rests. This led to controversy among the Calvinists and Sandemanians, concerning the nature of justifying faith; and the latter formed themselves into a separate sect. They administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper weekly, and hold "love-feasts," of which every member is not only allowed but required to partake, and which consists of their dining together at each other's houses, in the interval between the morning and afternoon service. They interpret literally the precept respecting the "kiss of charity," which they use on the admission of a new member, as well as on other occasions, when they deem it necessary or proper: they make a weekly collection before the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; use mutual exhortation; abstain from blood and things strangled; wash each other's feet; hold that every one is to consider all that he possesses to be liable to the calls of the poor and the church, and that it is unlawful to "lay up treasures upon earth, by setting them apart for any future use. They allow of public and private diversions, so far as they are not connected with circumstances really sinful; but apprehending a lot to be sacred, they disapprove of lotteries, playing at cards, dice, &c. They maintain the necessity of a plurality of elders, pastors, or bishops in each church, and the necessity of the presence of two elders in every act of discipline, and at the administration of the Lord's Supper. Second marriages dis