and they were all members of Christ, that there ought not to be any bar of human device and forgery to exclude such a person from participation of Christ. And as this is true of any individual Christian, it is a principle of intercommunity which extends itself through all the faithful of Christendom. All true members of Christ are members of one body. Every man amongst them is spiritually a member of every church. Thus all Christians on earth may and ought to be, as a body, united.

It may be further observed, that if it can be shown from Scripture, by any arguments independent of those which we have now advanced in favour of a catholic church, that the separate congregations of Christians were united under one government, which consequently produced social union, if, in fact, as far as Christianity had extended in the history of the canonical books, it appears that there was one spiritual incorporation of the believers, most probably for the sake of unity in truth and love, we shall then better see the reasons for the union of the church being so much insisted on in Scripture. It would be a necessary concomitant of the one truth and the one charitable spirit. The above induction, and the new proof from Scripture, will mutually confirm each other. We shall be the more certain, on discovering that the union of churches is a matter of Scripture history, that our reasoning is correct; and reasoning will serve to convince us that we do not misinterpret the language of inspiration. We shall, in short, perceive the combined evidence of Scripture and reason to the fact of ecclesiastical union, and Scripture, it will be seen in a subsequent

part of this volume, does supply us with separate proofs. We may here then assert the fact on the arguments just adduced, corroborated by its additional testimony.

We have now spoken of union in truth, in love, and in society. And to be united in these three respects must be the essence of christian unity on earth, and a foretaste of reunion in heaven. It is impossible to deny that the unity which we have considered in all its parts would be the perfection of christian churchship. Imagination delights in that beautiful picture of piety which would be presented by the world, were all men spiritually united in one church, hearing and following ministers of the same true doctrine, and eating the bread of life with one heart and one soul. Were indeed all men hearers of the truth and worshippers in one true church, the ministers would have only to edify the adult and to educate the young. Such a state of optimism could be conceived that ministers might be altogether dispensed with; and that every man should know the Lord from the least to the greatest. This would be a reign of Christ on earth. I here neither assert nor deny, that such a consummation is to be expected. In familiar language, there are many degrees of excellence. It would be a great improvement on the present state of the world, if all who professed Christianity were united in society, truth, and love, and were endeavouring to bring others to the same agreement. Certainly it is impossible for Christ's religion to be practised as it ought till such a change is produced. Nor is it for any one to say, if provision is made for

unity in the word of God, to what success rightlydirected endeavours might conduce. Most undoubtedly, the nearer we approach to either of the states of union, the nearer we approach to Christ; and the more remote that object, the farther we stray from him. And if it is, as it appears, the design of the Almighty that all men should be one in Christ, it is an end proposed to man which challenges emulation as the grandest achievement of his spiritual exertion.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE PRESENT STATE OF RELIGIOUS SEPARATION AMONGST PROTESTANTS IN ENGLAND.

It is scarcely possible to conceive a more melancholy contrast with the scriptural idea of unity portrayed in the last chapter, than the picture of dissent exhibited at the present time in this country; a composition disfigured not only by the variety of sects and diversity of doctrines, but by the dislike inseparable from conscientious disagreement, and, in too many instances, by the bitterness of zeal. To fill up the measure of our errors, even men of considerable learning and religious disposition appear to view the confusion with complacency, as if it were the work of the Deity. Complaints are common against the church; but seldom, if ever, are there any lamentations heard from those who are loudest in her condemnation over the numerous contrarieties of her opponents. An author whose opposition to the church is most violent, for a man of cultivated mind, would try her merits by comparing her with only one of the opponent sects, and so far he would be justifiable; but if his silence leaves it to be in

ferred, that he can forget or excuse every other existing sect or heresy, he suffers himself to appear in a light which casts upon him no honourable reflection. The existence of sects is notorious. It is a standing evidence of our religious divisions. The exact number is uncertain; but it may not be unnecessary to observe, for those whose observation has been local and reading confined, that twenty seems to be a moderate computation. The record of a dissenting historian of different denominations, exceeded that number prior to certain recent excrescences and subdivisions. And it must be particularly noticed, that not only professors of Christianity may be denominated violators of the unity signified; the freethinker, the sceptic, the man who is indifferent to all religions, the deist, the theophilanthropist, the atheist, are all examples in kind. Let not this sentence be stigmatized as unjust, as the illiberal judgment of staunch episcopalianism. It is evident to intuition, that these distinctions could not exist were all men united in any one christian society established in the country. And with respect to the divisions among Christians, they are, in at least the most popular sects, so many instances of separate communion. The baptist owns no church-membership with the methodist; and neither of these unites in worship with the independent: baptist will even exclude baptist from the altar, on account of dissension. None of these religionists, as well as others, would communicate with members of the established church. The form of kneeling alone would, probably, present an insuperable obstacle to a performance of the ceremony. It may be retorted, that the churchman