he," and foretel you as if I were prefent the fecond "time, and being abfent, now I write to them, "which heretofore have finned, and to all other, "that if I come again, I will not spare." And again "I write these things, being abfent, left being "prefent, I fhould ufe fharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me, to edifica"tion, and not to deftruction." Though Dr. Campbell could not but perceive, that thefe expreffions gave little countenance to his congregational, or independent scheme, yet by tranflating the wordsΗ επίτιμια αυλή ή ύπο των πλειόνων σε the cenfure which was "inflicted by the community," inftead of " this punishment which was inflicted of many," he would feem to infinuate, that the incestuous perfon was excommunicated by a vote of the congregation; when the fact was, that without referring the matter at all to them, St. Paul himfelf had paffed the fentence, as he tells us in these words" I verily "as abfent in body, but prefent in fpirit, have judg"ed already, as though I were prefent, concerning "him, that hath fo done this deed; in the name of

our Lord Jefus Chrift, when ye are gathered together, and my fpirit, with the power of our Lord Jefus Chrift, to deliver fuch a one unto Satan, "for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may "be faved in the day of the Lord Jefus." The apostle then proceeds to fhew, what fhould be the effect

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effect of this fentence, by enjoining those to whom he wrote, to put away from among them the "excommunicated perfon, not to keep company "with him, and with fuch an one, no not to "eat ;" which abhorrence of his company and converfation, would of course bring him into public difgrace, and that difgrace was the punishment which the Chriftian people had to inflict, in confequence of their apostle's fentence.

But the strain of declamation, in which Dr. Campbell indulges on this fubject, feems all intended to afford him an opportunity, not only of giving a favourable view of the difcipline of his own church; which, unless with regard to "churches and manfes, "and fome other things of little moment," he confiders as perhaps the most unexceptionable now to be met with; but also of representing in a very different light, "the polity and discipline" of the Church of England, which he seems to think, have been" devised, for the express purpose of rendering the clerical character odious, and the difcipline contemptible." As a proof of this, he tells his audience, that "ecclefiaftical cenfures, in England, have now no regard, agreeably to their "original destination, to purity and manners;" fuppofing, no doubt, that his prefbyterian ftudents would never look into the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, where, in the rubric prefixed to the communion service, and which was made a part of, and confirmed by, an act of parliament, the mi

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nifter is exprefsly ordered to admit, or not to admit to the Lord's table, according to what he knows of the life and converfation of the perfon applying for admiffion; and in cafe of "repelling any," he is "obliged to give an account of the fame to his or"dinary, who fhall proceed against the offending

perfon according to the canon." How then can it be faid, that fuch" ecclefiaftical cenfures have "no regard to purity and manners?" Yes-fays Dr. Campbell the participation of one of the "facraments having been with them, by a very "fhort-fighted policy, perverted into a teft for civil "offices, a minifter may be compelled by the ma

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giftrate, to admit a man who is well known to be "a most improper perfon, an atheist, blafphemer, "or profligate."* The hiftory of this teft, and the causes, which gave rife to it, and ftill operate in the opinion of the legislature, as a fufficient ground for its continuance, must have been well known to our learned profeffor; who must alfo have known, had he but taken the trouble to inquire, that no fuch compulfion as that which he fuppofes, is ever experienced by any minifter of the Church of England;t and

Vol. I. p. 72.

See this matter very fully discussed by the learned Bishop Sherlock, in his "Arguments against the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts."The test act," says that able prelate, "forces no clergyman to give the "facrament to atheists and debauchees, or any other offenders, if they be "openly and notoriously fuch: and if they are fuch only in fecret, they are "out of the question; for no clergyman's confcience can be burdened for ad"mitting an unknown offender to the facrament. If a clergyman proceed

and therefore the coarfe expreffion might have been fpared, which alludes to the test, as "a coarse im"plement of human authority, to compel a thing "of so delicate a nature as true religion." The coarfenefs complained of, lies not in the implement, but in the difpofition of thofe, who are tempted to abuse, or apply it to a wrong purpose; and fuch temptations will always occur, where the profeflion of religion is accompanied with thofe worldly advantages, which in fome fhape or other, are often connected with it, even when embraced in its greateft purity.

Having obferved our Lecturer taking so much pains to convince his pupils, that the discipline of his own church, though infinitely preferable to that of the Church of England, was yet far fhort of the pure apoftolic model, by which the congregational or independent churches are diftinguished, we might have supposed, that any farther inquiry into the ori ginal form of church government, was either quite unneceffary, or at least a matter of fo little moment as not to require any long or ferious difcuffion.-For if it be true, that all ecclefiaftical authority is derived from the people, and that the very diftinction

"with discretion and charity, and according to the rules prefcribed him by "authority, he has as little to fear from a man with a place, as from a man "without one; and if he be unjustly and yexatiously sued for doing his du "ty, the law will give him cofts."-Such was the opinion of an English prelate, who in regard to this matter, muft furely have known what was "the "law of the land," and the power of the magiftrate, as well as any Scotch. profeffor.

between clergy and laity, has its only foundation in the will and choice of the Chriftian community, appointing what is proper for the preservation of order and decency in their religious affemblies; in that cafe, the question, whether the persons set apart in the apoftolic age for that purpose, were of one, or two, or three orders; or what were the powers with which they were fuppofed to be invested, is so frivolous in itself, and of fo little weight in the fcale of our duty as Christians, as hardly to require or merit the flighteft examination. Yet trifling as it muft have appeared in the eyes of Dr. Campbell, and of fuch of his ftudents as viewed it in the fame light with him, he obliged them to attend to it, through feven of his lecturers; "the fubject of “which,” he told them," was the internal polity "of the church, and the form fhe has infenfibly af "fumed; with the rules of fubordination which "have obtained, and in many places do ftill obtain "in the different orders."

In following him through the course of this inquiry, we are prefented with a regular chain of "steps, advancing, from prefbytery to parochial

Epifcopacy, thence to prelacy or diocefan Epifco

pacy, from that to metropolitical primacy, thence "again to patriarchal fuperintendency," and landing at last in the papal fupremacy. The first three of these steps, are all with which, properly speaking, we are concerned, in defending our own ecclefiaftical polity; and through these we shall endeavour to

trace