upon the remotest antiquity; and admits of no doctrine, however plainly laid down in the revealed word of God, if not clearly reducible to certain pre-conceived ideas of right and justice. These principles so distinctly encourage and set up a private and independent judge in every man's breast, that they cannot also but allow of and sanction the utmost possible difference of opinion. Of course, where there is so little reason for individuals remaining joined together, there can be no good ground for complaining against any of their brethren who shall chuse to make a further separation upon principles of their own devising".

But farther, it is curious (and this brings me to the last circumstance memorable in this revolution of men's opinions respecting ecclesiastical authority) it is, I say, particularly curious that this extreme laxity of opinion upon

19 As has evidently been the case, among others, with Priestley, Evanson and Wakefield; the two former of whom have outstripped all who have gone before them in the liberties which they have taken with the scriptures; and the last in rejecting social worship. I was not aware that this last tenet had gained so much ground. But I see it mentioned in a periodical work, (Gent. Mag. for Dec. 1807, p. 1128) that on that account we must not estimate the number of Socinians from the number of their chapels, there being a great proportion of that sect who upon this principle of Wakefield's, absent themselves from all places of public worship. This will serve to prove, among numerous other instances, to what length the spirit of non-conformity will go when it is fully let loose.

the most important tenets of christianity (prevailing whether in or out of the church) has, by a sort of revulsion, given rise to another sect, as decidedly schismatical, but proceeding upon the directly opposite extreme in point of doctrine. The Socinians, as well as the Arians, though these last in a less degree, denying the atonement made by Christ for our sins, and asserting our sufficiency to merit salvation by our own good works only, must of course confine, or principally direct their preaching to what is called the moral part of the law. This must also have been the practice of those among our clergy, who leant to the same opinions: and possibly it may have happened to some of the body who were strictly orthodox, to dwell more frequently upon the purely practical, than upon what is by many considered, though falsely, as the speculative part of religion. Whether this did, in fact, take place to any extent, it is not perhaps easy to ascertain; but, upon the supposition that it had obtained not only in a great degree but almost universally, about.

"I profess myself perfectly unable to ascertain this: and therefore speak only on the report of the sectaries themselves. I find none of our divines of that time backward to insist upon the peculiar doctrines of christianity; certainly not the non-jurors. But as Bishop Hoadly as well as Dr. Clarke had many partizans, under the denomination of the low church, it is not unlikely but that among them some such deficiency, as was pretended, may have been found.

half a century ago, there arose in the very bosom of this university another sect, pretending that there was a necessity for a new aad' more zealous ministry, in order to enforce and disseminate the true faith in Christ, which they declared had been shamefully neglected and abused. Of these men, who made themselves known to the world under the name of me-1 thodists, it is not necessary at this moment to say much, as the existence of them and the influence which they have gained over the minds, chiefly of the more ignorant and lower sort of mankind, are sufficiently notorious. What is remarkable, is, that in doctrine, they profess most completely to hold with the church of England; nay, the boast of their founders was, that they were in strict conformity to her articles, while the regular clergy daily departed from them. Their leaders too had received ordination from our bishops.' This makes them, or, at least, made them, in the beginning, more purely schismatical than most of the dissenters of whom we have been

speaking. Another circumstance worthy of notice is, that in their pecularities of doctrine for the adoption of which we conceive them to be blameable, as putting a wrong construction upon some of our articles, they also have their favourers among the regularly ordained,

and officiating ministers of the church. So that, in this case also, there has not been wanting precisely the same sort of encouragement and countenance as has, according to what we before observed, been enjoyed by the other separatists. Here again, therefore, we shall meet, where we might least have looked for it, with a considerable body, who are either the patrons of schism, or who will be disposed to look upon it, if not openly to treat it with indifference".

In laying before you thus early, and perhaps somewhat out of its order, this account of what I conceive to have been the state of the church during the progress of the revolution which has taken place in men's minds respecting the subject which I am discussing, I have had in view two objects: first, to remove from myself that prejudice which might have been entertained by any of you as if in arguing so seriously against schism, and labouring to prevent the extension of it, I were attempting some new thing, and pursuing ideas of my own; and, secondly, to lead you, from the actual situa tion in which we stand, and the numerous enemies with which our ecclesiastical establishment is, as it were, beset or hemmed in, to consider whether this be not an evil of such

See additional note C. for these gentlemen's own account of themselves.

magnitude and pressure as requires to be resisted with all the vigilance, and all the powers which Providence has bestowed upon us.

Such being my individual persuasion, I intend, with God's help, to lay before you in some detail the argument against schism, as it is to be collected from scripture: both as it is found in express reasoning and precept, and also as it is supported by facts and examples. Upon this certainly, as upon the corner stone, do I propose to build; feeling that no other "foundation can man lay." I shall however confirm this by shewing the manifest tendency of schism, not only to disturb the peace of the church, but also to corrupt her doctrine; this too made more plain by instances, which the history of christianity will amply supply.

And, because it has been a favourite topic with dissenters of all sorts to insist upon our separation from the church of Rome as if it precluded us from objecting to their, or any other separation from our church, I shall pretty much at large shew the difference of the two cases; and prove that not only our church was fully justified in what she then did, but that the reformation can be a precedent only in cases where to have remained in communion with those from whom the separation is made would be sinful. That this therefore can never justify those men, who can allege no actual The question.

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