nations who joined them on this account I should not be guilty of exaggeration. They became dissenters from feeling a concern for the eternal salvation of their souls, and their inability to procure instruction on the subject in the parish church'.

• That this is likely to be the case in many hundreds of instances will not appear strange to those who read the following account of the persons admitted into orders in the establishment. It is given by a prelate of considerable note, Dr. Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Sarum, in his Preface to the third edition of his Discourse on the Pastoral Care, page 25, 26.

"Our Ember weeks are the burthen and grief of my life. The much greater part of those who come to be ordained are ignorant to a degree, not to be apprehended by those who are not obliged to know it. The easiest part of knowledge is that to which they are the greatest strangers; I mean the plainest part of the Scriptures, which they say, in excuse of their ignorance, that their tutors in the universities never mention the reading of to them; so that they can give no account, or at least a very imperfect one, of the contents even of the Gospels. Those who have read some few books, yet never seem to have read the Scriptures. Many cannot give a tolerable account even of the Catechism itself, how short and plain They cry and think it a sad disgrace to be denied orders, though the ignorance of some is such, that in a well-regulated state of things they would appear not knowing enough to be admitted to the holy sacraments."

soever.

"This does often tear my heart. The case is not much better in many, who having got into orders come for institution, and cannot make it appear that they have read the Scriptures, or any one good book since they were ordained; so that the small measures of knowledge, upon which they got into holy orders, not being improved, is in a way to be quite lost; and then they think it a great hardship if they are told, they must know the Scriptures and the body of divinity better before they can be trusted with the care of souls. These things pierce one's soul, and make me often cry out, oh that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest! What are we like to grow to? In what a case are we to deal with any adversary, atheist, papist, or dissenters, or in any sort to promote the honour of God, and carry on the great concerns of

I could assign more reasons, gentlemen, for my dissent, but I will not trespass further on your patience. When those which have been assigned are duly weighed by angry churchmen, it is to be hoped that dissenters will hear no more of the heinous sin of schism, which has of late been as plentifully sprinkled on them, as the holy water by a zealous devotee of the communion of Rome; or rather as the mud in the streets of London by the broad foot of a dray-horse on the passengers who are

near.

In the scriptural sense of the word (and that is the only sense worth attending to), schism denotes a separation, in heart and affections, from those who are walking according to the institutions of Christ; and it may include an entire departure from their communion. But wherein am I guilty of this offence? If I denied Christ to be the only head of the church, and associated with such as do, it would be schism; but I assert his sole authority in his church. If I were a member of a society which assumed the right to alter, to add to, or to take away from what he established, it would be schism: but I plead for the integrity of Christ's constitution, and associate with those who do. Shew me that I separate from a church of which Christ is the head, whose doctrines are the pure and simple doctrines of the Gospel; whose worship is that which Christ the Gospel, when so gross an ignorance in the fundamentals of religion hath spread itself so much among those who ought to teach others, and yet need that one teach them the first principles of the oracles of God?"

or the

persons

Whether bishops are now more easily satisfied, who apply for ordination are better divines than they were then, are matters of grave consideration.

prescribes; which maintains a godly discipline by restraining transgressors from her communion, and admitting only such as appear to be his true disciples; which displays kind forbearance, and gentle condescension, to weak and tender consciences, and from these marks demonstrates itself to be the church of Christ. Show me that I separate from such a church, and I will confess mine iniquity, and own myself guilty of schism.

But if I separate from a mere parliamentary church, which was formed into shape out of the chaos of popery by acts of the English legislature, and had no existence before the year one thousand five hundred and sixty; a church which, in none of its features, bears a resemblance to any thing earlier than the ecclesiastical constitution of the fourth or fifth century; and in some, to what did not appear till the ninth or tenth: a church which has so many things to be complained of in its constitution, its head, its doctrines, its worship, its services, its sacraments, its discipline, to call this schism, and charge me as a schismatic, because I am not of her communion, and cannot conscientiously declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all her multifarious code:-to call this schism! Surely it is full time that the word was dropt, and that the accusation ceased. I repeat it. Schism is an alienation of heart, and a separation from Christ's institution, not from man's inventions. They who would impose such inventions on the disciples of Christ, instead of his institutions, they are the schismatics, not those who separate from them for conscience sake'.

The lawfulness, and indeed the propriety of separation in such a case is confirmed by the authority of men whose judgment has

To try your patience further, gentlemen, would be an ungenerous abuse of good nature. Though I could assign many other reasons, I will leave the cause on these; and I have no fear of their being insufficient, if they be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. They are equally applicable to a layman as to a minister. Should not every layman be as much concerned as a minister for the purity of the Gospel, for the simplicity of the institutions of Christ, and for the full exhibition of those grand general principles which so highly conduce to the glory of God, the honour of religion, and the happiness of the human race.

been always highly respected by the most eminent members of the church of England. The celebrated Mr. Hales of Eaton, in his Essay on Schism, says, "That where cause of schism is necessary, there, not he that separates, but he that is the cause of the separation, is the schismatic. And when either false or uncertain conclutions are obtruded for truth; and acts, either unlawful, or ministring just ground of scruple, are required of us to be performed; in these cases, consent were conspiracy, and open contestation is not faction or schism, but due Christian animosity. For that it is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falsehood, and to put in practice unlawful or suspected actions." Chillingworth's name needs no epithet of praise. His sentiments on this subject are contained in the following words: "If a church impose and enjoin sin and error, then we must forsake men rather than God, and leave the church's communion rather than commit sin, and profess known errors to be divine truths: to say the Lord has said so, when he has not said so, is a great sin, be the matter never so small." "I may, without schism, divide from that church which errs on any point of faith, fundamental or otherwise, if she requires the profession of this error among the conditions of her communion." No one ever doubted Dr. Hammond's attachment to the established religion of his country. Writing on schism, he delivered it as his judgment, "that any imposition of what is, or is thought to be sinful, in any communion, will justify people's departing from that communion; and that we must not at all adven

These reasons receive inconceivable force from a testimony given in their favour by two thousand credible witnesses. Acuteness may point an argument, and press it 'deep into the mind: eloquence may adorn it, and combine beauty with strength; but there is a line of conduct, there are actions which display the weight of reasons far more powerfully than either or both of these. An example is exhibited in that, by which two thousand clergymen of the English church chose to give up their livings, and expose themselves, and their families, to poverty and absolute want, rather than violate the purity and peace of their consciences, by declaring their assent and consent to the Book of Common Prayer, and conforming to things which appeared to be contrary to the sacred Scriptures. At the reformation, the mass of the clergy veered about with every political change of the national faith. When Charles the second was restored to the throne, a multitude of the clergy who, from all the rigid severity of Laud's, episcopal usages, had, with ease, changed to the different modes of church government and worship, during the suspension of monarchy, found no diffiture on the least sin, or suspected sin." Bishop Stillingfleet, who was the champion of episcopacy, says, "we think the requiring of doubtful things for certain is good ground encugh for us not to embrace communion with the church, unless it may be had on better terms." See a Dialogue justifying separation from the church of Rome.

If the reasoning of these eminent episcopal English divines be conclusive, when they are arguing against the accusations of schism by the church of Rome, it is equally conclusive reasoning when used by dissenters against accusations of schism by the church of England, whose imposing spirit has been fully proved. Thus out of the mouth of her own sons we are justified from the charge.