THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH, AND THE SINFULNESS OF SEPARATION FROM IT.

THE Reformation, blighted as it was, and for a season, retarded by the reign of bigotry and bloodshed, which succeeded that of the sixth Edward, cannot be considered as completely established till Elizabeth ascended the throne of these realms. At this auspicious event, Papal domination and Roman Catholic superstition vanished, as the mists of night clear away at the approach of day.

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The Church having now, at length, become restored to her primitive purity; having pruned away the redundancies she acquired while subjugated to Rome; and having renounced the sinful rites, the superstitious practices, which a misguided zeal had superadded to the genuine Apostolical religion; may henceforward be con

sidered "the ground and pillar of truth"-the living model of Gospel faith, without admixture of error-the possessor of "the words of eternal life"-and the only safe guide to the paths of peace,' and to the fruition of the best and dearest hopes of man! Possessed of that Apostolic Constitution that characteristic of a true Church-that, without which there can be no Church, in a scriptural sense, and consequently no covenanted hope of salvation *; viz. a Ministry tracing up their commission from HIM who said to his eleven Apostles, summoned to meet Him for the express purpose, "Go ye and teach all nations, and lo! I am with you (i. e. with you and your lawful successors) to the end of the world”—possessed, I say, of this essential basis, and at the same

Since Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it,' it becomes highly important to know what the Church is.We hear daily of the Baptist Church,' the Independent Church,' the Presbyterian Church,' the Methodist Church,', the Church of the Free-thinking Christians,' (viz. of those who deny the divinity of Christ) and, indeed, of as many 'Churches' as there are different shades of caprice; but, by bringing this misapplied word to a scriptural test, we shall soon un-church all these self-erected Churches, and discover that the term has been adopted only to mislead the unwary. See this point fully treated in a Sermon entitled the Church Defined, or an Answer to the question What is the Church ?? by the Author of these sheets.

time inculcating "the form of sound words," "the faith once delivered to the saints,"-and placed at an equal distance from Romish superstition and dissenting enthusiasm, she might, if those of her own household were but true to her sacred cause and claims, become as a fortress protected by the buckler of Almighty power, and ever raise her triumphant head against the thunders of Papal despotism, and the secret machinations and wily encroachments of every class of schismatics.

The Reformation of the Church, effected as it was without the general consent of the Church, has been adduced as a recognition, on our part, of the principle of separation or schism, or as it is popularly called, "the exercise of the right of private judgment." But most absurdly. The Dissenter, when urged by the Churchman with texts of holy writ, pointing out the damning nature of schism, never fails to allege our alienation from the Romish Church; and on this fancied precedent, he proceeds to build his own baseless and unsubstantial fabric. "If," says he," you were justified in separating from Rome, we also are justified in separating from you." Now this is attempting an argument from analogy, where, in truth, no analogy exists. The two cases are diametrically dissimilar. Need a man of com

mon discernment be told that, in point of fact, we never separated from but reformed the Church, for we still continue "the Church," inasmuch as the essentials of the Church are yet in us, viz. an apostolically derived Episcopacy and Ministry. For, correctly speaking, it is not doctrine that makes a Church, any more than corruption of doctrine that will un-make a Church. A Church may, at one and the same time, be a true Church and à corrupt Church; i. e. true as to constitution-corrupt as to practice. The Church of Rome, for instance, is at once a true and a corrupt Church. That to which we have the happiness to belong is also a true Church; that is, true as to constitution, and moreover it is a true Church as to doctrine also; while those in a state of separation from us, labour under a two-fold disadvantage, since they are neither a Church in constitution nor in doctrine; for constitution they have not, since they have no divinely derived right or authority to preach, or administer the Sacraments; and as to doctrine, their notions are in general either Calvinistic, or Antinomian, or in some way fanatical, visionary, and unscriptural. Thus the Romanist has one grand and leading advantage over Dissenters of every denomination.

At our alienation from Rome, we happily

and wisely retained our ecclesiastical constitution, having obtained it through the Church of Rome, nor did we alter the doctrine nor introduce" a new Religion," as the Catholics falsely allege! We solely divested Christianity of those sinful practices with which Popery had disfigured the genuine features of the Gospel, and marred the beauty of holiness. We did not dissent from the constitution,-(or as many writers inconsiderately call it, thereby lowering the importance of the claim, the discipline), or from the original doctrine of the Church, but from the sins of the Church, from her superstitions, from her unscriptural inventions,from her fond conceits, all tending to set man in a meritorious point of view, and claiming that which must be accepted as a boon. This truly is a most important distinction: and one which causes the pretended analogy of the two cases at once to fall to the ground. From what, I would ask, do Dissenters (for I speak not of Unitarians and other heretics, in fact not Christians), from what do Dissenters dissent? Really from nothing worth dissenting about. Independents, Methodists, Baptists, and “học genus omne" are Trinitarians; some of them adopt our Liturgy, copy in all things the Church which they vilify, and agree with her, I believe, in most leading points, except in their unhal

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