in Scotland, who have refused to commune with the episcopal church in that kingdom, and to acknowlege the spiritual jurisdiction of her bishops, on the flimsy pretence that their own orders have been derived from the English or Irish prelates. Those men might with equal propriety, if they were to cross the Atlantic, refuse to submit to the authority of the bishops settled in North America. They appear in fact to be either culpably ignorant of the true principles of the Christian church, or to be actuated by a pride and conceit totally unbecoming their profession. It should seem as if they thought a legal establishment indispensible to the validity of the episcopal character: and that to constitute a bishop's superiority over the presbytery it is absolutely necessary he should be a peer of the realm If such be their notions, we can only pity them, and feel concern for the wretched condition of the people who have the misfortune to sit under their ministration. They must, indeed, be goodly instructors who know so little of Christ's kingdom, or the history of the Christian church, as to make prosperity and splendour the rule of obedience to spiritual governors!

We have been the rather led to make these observations by lately meeting with a volume of sermons published by a Dr. Grant, minister of the English episcopal chapel at Dundee. This Dr. Grant subjoins to his volume, An Apology for continuing in Communion with the Church of England: but it is, in fact, a sorry apology for refusing to join in communion with the episcopal church of Scotland. Is Dr. Grant a minister ordained in the church of England, and is he yet to learn that this church confines her jurisdiction within her own limits? To what bishop does Dr. Grant acknowlege obedience in his present situation; or what bishop of our church would venture to countenance him or to receive even letters testimonial from him? If Dry Grant's flock wish for confirmation, and it is his duty to prepare them for it, where are they to go for that rite? Are they to cross the Tweed, and apply to the next English bishop? It will be necessary that his lordship should receive letters from their pastor, testifying not only their qualification, but that they belong to his diocese. But will any bishop admit of such letters from the minister of an episcopal chapel at Dundee? We cannot possibly believe that there is a single prelate in the united kingdom, even in this period of lax discipline and erroneous doctrine, who would commit such an irregu

larity. Scotland is wholly out of our ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and the presbyterial order is there established by law. How it came to be so is another question. But will any man who pretends to believe in the divine right of episcopacy, venture to assert that when a presbyterian king procured an act to be passed for the alteration of church government in Scotland, the deprived bishops, by this act, lost the spiritual authority which they obtained at their consecration? If their consecration was regular, not all the kings, nor all the parliaments of this world, could possibly subtract a particle of those powers which the bishops derived solely from Christ as the spiritual head of the church. If there be such an offence as SCHISM, and this we suppose will hardly be contested by one who admits that episcopacy is the true form of government ordained at the commencement of the church, and intended to be perpetuated to its consummation, then it must be granted that any separation from episcopal communion, except when the terms of such communion are sinful, is SCHISM. Those nominal episcopalians in Scotland, who refuse to join in communion with the bishops there, are therefore guilty of this offence, because they are out of the jurisdiction of the united church of this kingdom, and they can have no justifiable plea for their separation on the ground that the Scotch episcopal church imposes terms that are sinful. That church uses our Liturgy and subscribes to our articles. She is therefore, to all intents and purposes, with the exception of not being an establishment, as true a church as our own.

We ought perhaps to make an apology for the length of these remarks, but the occasion called for them, and we were glad to express our disapprobation of the conduct of some persons who assume a very unwarrantable merit on account of their pretended attachment to the church of England, when the very ground alleged for this assumption is at direct variance with the acknowledged principles of this church.

From the excellent sermon before us, we are happy how ever to see that there is a prospect of a removal of those unreasonable prejudices and jealousies which have hitherto opposed a union between the two classes of episcopalians in Scotland. Dr. Sandford is a minister ordained in the church of England, and he has been consecrated to the office of bishop of Edinburgh. This circumstance can

not

not fail to have a good effect upon the minds of all the friends of episcopacy in that part of the kingdom; and produce a still more general conformity to the church of Christ, which has preserved a regular succession there amidst contumely and oppression, reproach and perse

cution.

Mr. Walker's sermon is admirably adapted for the occasion; and must have made a powerful impression, we should suppose, upon all who heard it. He defends the cause of episcopacy with great strength of argument, and notices the opposition of its adversaries with temper and moderation.

The following account of the Reformation is very neat and judicious.

"The Reformation was an event of inestimable value to the human race. But with much good it brought also along with it much evil. It excited various and violent passions, and gave rise to divisions and animosities in the church of Christ, which have raged with more or less destructive violence ever since. In England this great event was conducted with distinguished moderation. The leaders in this work of God rejected with firmness the errors and corruptions of the church of Rome; but they did not absurdly think that they had to form a new church, or found a new religion. No---they did not walk by metaphysical reasoning, nor by the doubtful principles and glimmering light of moral science. They read the Scriptures, and enquired into the history of the primitive church, and whatever they found agreeable to these authorities, they firmly retained. Their laudable, enlightened, and moderate conduct, was approved at the time, as it has been since, by all who were capable of judging; and even the most illustrious of the foreign reformers, who had acted very differently, as they pleaded from necessity, added in the amplest form their testimony of approbation. Against the principles of episcopal government, thus reformed, the plea of necessity was urged by some, and that of conscience by others. By referring to the period, it is easy, even for an unconcerned spectator, to discover on which side existed moderation, and reason, and authority; and on which passion, and prejudice, and violence. The dispute being once, from whatever cause, unhappily excited, it is not difficult to conceive how it should have been continued from age to age."

Mr. Walker next proceeds to notice some of the most popular objections that are made to the episcopal form of church polity, and he states and refutes them with equal perspicuity and strength.

Of the church to which he belongs, and which may Vol. X. Churchm. Mag. for June 1806. 3 N justly

justly boast of him as a distinguished ornament, he thus speaks:

"Our church neither is, nor ever was, as a religious society, contemptible, nor such as any of its members had reason to be ashamed of. Its preservation, in circumstances of uncommon difficulty, is astonishing; that it is not now very numerous can excite no surprise; but as a distinct religious society, it is still in a high degree respectable. In our doctrines, worship, and discipline, we perfectly agree with the united church of the greater part of the empire. We are dissenters, indeed, from that which is established in this part of the kingdom: but our reasons of dissent are not frivoloùs; nor are they ever impertinently obtruded; nor is any part of our practice dangerous. Neither can our principles be condemned as novelties. It is even pardonable, if we wish to distinguish ourselves from the growing mass of sectaries, by reflecting that our's was once the established church of our native land, as it still is of the southern part of our island. To the united church of England and Ireland, we are most sincerely and cordially attached; and our most earnest prayers must ever be that she may ever retain the advantages which she enjoys. When we are called upon to live within the limits of her jurisdiction, we are hes faithful adherents, as the most zealous of her own children. But we are the enemies of no church nor party, however different from our own; and least of all are we disposed to reproach or to injure that which is established among us. What the established church of Scotland may have to fear from the numerous sects which have separated, and which daily separate from her, it becomes not us to judge; but from us, who never separated from, because we never belonged to her, most certainly she has nothing to fear."

This is manly and candid; and we may be permitted to say, on glancing at the conduct of the dominant church there, that it is literally no less than "returning good for evil." Such indeed, as far as we have been able to trace,has been invariably the demeanour of this depressed member of Christ's flock through its whole period of humiliation.

Our readers will participate with us in the satisfaction afforded by the perusal of the following interesting account, and judicious application:

The most distinguished and respectable part of the English clergy, residing and officiating in this country, have united with us, in a manner not less honourable to them, than creditable to our humble Zion. It is equally well known, that this their laudable conduct has been sanctioned and approved by the highest legal and ecclesiastical authority of their native church: and

certainly

certainly the solemn service of this day exhibits a remarkable. and unquestionable proof and pledge of that entire cordiality which has been so happily re-established---never more, it is hoped, to be broken. In this blessed state of union, so happily accomplished, and sealed, as it were, in the most solemn manner, let us all of every rank and degree, labour with honest emulation to approve ourselves the faithful ministers of our blessed master's spiritual kingdom Let us, above all things, labour to obtain the favour of him whose stewards we are, and thus shall we effectually obey the injunction of my text--- Let no man despise ther."

We cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of extracting part of the peroration in which the duty of Christian integrity is emphatically enforced.

"In these disastrous times, in which dangerous novelties assail us on every hand, in which errors in politics, in science, and religion, are propagated with assiduity, and produce endless doubts, animosities, jealousies, and divisions, we may be permitted earnestly to exhort and to entreat all those who acknowledge our humble authority, to stand firm in their profession. This is within the precise line of our spiritual duty, and interferes with no law of man, while it agrees with every ordinance of God. Fixed and approved principles are of inestimable. value in every age; but in the unhappy times in which the providence of God has been pleased to cast our lot, their value becomes palpably evident even to the careless and inattentive. It is too obvious that the want of such principles, and of the practice resulting from them, has been the main cause of all the desolation of which we have been the unhappy witnesses. That the judgments of God are abroad in the earth, the most thoughtless of men, if they are capable of conviction, must now be convinced; and where these judgments may end, the most sagacious cannot pretend to calculate.

6

"That good will finally result from all the moral and judicial evil which we have witnessed, and may yet have cause to dread, cannot be doubted by any Christian. But, in the last extremities of divinely commissioned desolation, our duty is plain; we may indeed suffer with the rest of mankind, but let us not suffer as evil doers. It must needs be that offences come; but woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh. It is better (says St. Peter), yes, beyond all comparison, it is better, if the will of God be so, that we suffer for well-doing, than for evil doing. By zealously performing the duties of our holy profession, and by sincerely reforming our conduct, each individual for himself, we may contribute what is interesting to the best feelings of the human heart, to the safety of our country, and to the restoration of order to the distracted world. But if even 3 N 2 this