dently are not, believers too often reason as if they had to determine that faith, in which, as determined for them by God, it should be their care that they might be built up. Neither the Bible nor the church claim belief at the hands of any man without credentials, and the examination of those credentials is not objected to, but invited; but when the authenticity of the credentials is once ascertained, the Bible assumes the character of the oracles, and the church that of the messenger, of God; and both claim, on this ground, submission. With regard to the Bible, that submission must be absolute at all times; with regard to the church, it is equally absolute in principle, though in practice it appears subject to some modification. This, however, arises not from any deficiency in the claim which the church undoubtedly has upon every one of her members, for absolute submission on their part to her authority; but it arises from the fact that the church herself is responsible to God for the exercise of her authority, and that in that responsibility all her members share, though in different degrees, according to the measure of authority committed to each. To whatever extent, then, each man has authority in the church, and consequently has a greater or less share of the common responsibility entailed upon him, to that same extent, and no further, is he, we say not, entitled, but solemnly

bound, to exercise his private judgment; not, however, mark the difference,-against the church, but in her service. That responsibility being discharged by him, according to the measure of his authority, absolute and perfect submission is, and remains, in all other respects, his duty. If the church refuse to listen and to reform her ways, the souls that shall perish through her impenitence, will be "required at her hands;" the individual that has borne his faithful testimony, and has not acted out his principles, only because his authority was insufficient, has "delivered his soul."

Το

One word in conclusion on the mode of argument usually adopted to evade the consistent application of these plain and simple principles, viz. the putting extreme hypothetical cases. argue after this fashion, is at all times indicative of unsoundness of reason, and badness of faith; but in matters in which God's promise and his faithfulness are involved, it is a profane practice which cannot be too strongly reprobated. A man has no right to doubt, that the faithful discharge of the responsibility devolving upon him, according to the measure of the authority committed to him, will, even though he should be called upon with his blood to seal his convictions, ultimately subserve God's own good and wise. purpose. He has no right to assume that the

usurpation on his part of authority never committed to his hands, and the presumptuous grasping after a responsibility never laid upon him, can ever serve the cause of God, or produce other than pernicious effects to himself and others. No one can be more unfit, either to take in hand the church's reformation, or to reason upon it, than he who hath not learned to apply to the difficulties in which individual members and ministers of an erring church may find themselves involved, the consoling truth that "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." Let those who are disposed thus captiously to reason, thus presumptuously to meddle with the order of the church, turn to any page of ecclesiastical history which records an unauthorized change with its consequences, and they will find in it a practical illustration of the apostolic caution so highly seasonable in regard to this mat"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." a

ter,

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CHAPTER XII.

The Privilege and Duty of the Anglican Church.

BE WATCHFUL, AND STRENGTHEN THE THINGS WHICH REMAIN, THAT ARE READY TO DIE: FOR I HAVE NOT FOUND THY WORKS PERFECT BEFORE GOD.

REMEMBER

THEREFORE HOW

THOU HAST RECEIVED AND HEARD, AND HOLD FAST, AND REPENT. IF THEREFORE THOU SHALT NOT WATCH, I WILL COME ON THEE AS A THIEF, AND THOU SHALT NOT KNOW WHAT HOUR I WILL COME UPON THEE."-Rev. iii. 2, 3.

If the evidence which we have adduced, be valid, and the reasoning which we have built upon it, sound, the following propositions will have been incontrovertibly established:

THAT Christianity is not a system of opinions, or of observances, to be held or followed by individual men, but a substantial life, begotten and perpetually sustained by the third Person of the blessed Godhead, the Holy Ghost, "the Lord and giver of life," in a body of men incorporated together as "the Holy Catholic Church;"-whence it follows, that to make a man a Christian, is not a human, but a divine operation;—that he who

claims to be regenerate by the Holy Ghost, but is not a member of the church, labours under a delusion;—and that he who professes to be a member of the church, but has no communion with the Holy Spirit, assumes a character which does not belong to him :

THAT the life of Christianity, i. e. fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and membership in the Church, is by divine appointment associated with certain outward and visible signs, and certain outward and visible acts, called the Sacraments and other means of grace ;—whence it follows,that the divine and invisible operation, by which a man becomes and continues to be a Christian, must have certain human and visible accompaniments;-that he who seeks to possess himself of the life of Christianity, apart from its visible accompaniments, attempts to reach the end without the means, which is a vain attempt ;-and that he who makes use of the visible accompaniments without reference to, or desire for, the life of Christianity, mistakes the means for the end, which is a fatal mistake :

THAT the ministration of the visible accompani ments of the life of Christianity is an office, not to be assumed by any man at his own or other