I. A church-government instituted by Christ II. Invested in the ministers of the Gospel.. III. The ministers, a separate and distinct order...... III. Proof of an imparity, consisting of a three-fold order 203 A SCRIPTURAL VINDICATION, &c. PART I. THE ALLIANCE OF CHURCH AND STATE. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. · 1. WHY am I a Churchman? A serious question this is to all who are not content to remain in a communion merely because they have been brought up in it; and especially so at present, when the Establishment is assailed with an hostility which avowedly aims at its destruc tion. Now, in determining the claims of any church to our adhesion, this inquiry must be directed in the first place to its doctrines, and in the next to its constitution and government. Unless it be in both respects strictly accordant with the sacred writings, it can have no just title to the character of a Scriptural Church. A complete examination of the subject should therefore embrace both branches of the inquiry; for the objections of separatists have been levelled against the B constitution, as well as against the doctrines of the Anglican Church. By some, the former is represented as of far inferior importance to the latter, and even regarded as a matter of indifference; while by others, both are deemed to be of little moment in comparison with practice. For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. But argument of this kind is, to say the least, useless; perhaps presumptuous. To the sincere believer, nothing can be unimportant which the Scriptures reveal; nothing a matter of indifference which they prescribe. If our Lord has instituted a particular church-state, it cannot be lawful to depart from it; nor is it reasonable to expect that vital religion can be maintained and diffused in any other way, or that internal and spiritual grace will be conveyed through any other medium. In a former age doctrines, together with a few ceremonies, such as the use of the surplice, the ring in marriage, the sign of the cross, bowing at the name of Jesus, kneeling at the sacrament, were the chief objects of contention by the nonconformists, many of whom appear to have been favourable to a national establishment, and some of them, to a moderate kind of episcopacy; whereas but little demur is now made at those ceremonies which, as frightful bugbears, alarmed the nonconforming piety of other times. The great body of modern dissenters mainly coincide with the tenets of our public formularies; and justify their separation from the Church on account of her episcopal government, and alliance with the state. Hence we may waive the consideration of doctrines which are involved only in a minor degree in the present controversy, and limit the investigation to the main question at issue-the lawfulness of an establishment, and the form and constitution of a Christian Church. The inquiry, thus limited, opens into a wide field of discussion,-whether a Christian Church be represented in the Word of God as national or congregational,-as allied with the state, or independent, as invested with authority, or as having no influence over private judgment ;whether the Christian ministry consists of different ranks, or only of one order;-how its officers are to be ordained, how appointed, how supported ;—what mode of worship is to be adopted, free prayer or set forms,-what rites and ceremonies. A right determination of these several particulars is requisite, to determine the question in dispute. Again; it is intended further to restrict the investigation, by laying out of consideration the various reasons derived from expediency and primitive order. The blessings of the national |