THE Author of this Tract has put what he conceives to be

the common-sense and scriptural view of the case, with as much brevity and simplicity as possible.

HEAR THE CHURCH!

"WHAT church?

St. Paul's church ?-or St.

Peter's church ?-or Trinity church ?-or All Saints' church? Which church are we to hear?

for there are many.' We may readily suppose an ignorant person, to whom the injunction to "hear the church" is addressed, making just such an inquiry as this. He has been accustomed to regard the consecrated building as a church, or the church; and has never been taught to understand the word in any other sense. But it must be obvious, even to the most ignorant, that such cannot be the meaning of the word in this case, for mere stones and bricks, however consecrated, and therefore, in general estimation, sacred, have never yet been endowed with intelligence, or gifted with the faculty of speech.

What, then, is the meaning of " the church," in the present instance; and how is it to be understood? Shall we go to the Bible, or to the Prayer-book, for an explanation? Suppose, for the present, we go to the latter, and take our notion of a church from the description which it gives "The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered, according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same."*

But what is the meaning of the term "faithful men?" Assuredly it means true believers; not infidels, on the one hand, nor hypocrites, on the other; but men who, while they profess their faith in Christ, give satisfactory evidence, by their works, that their faith is genuine, and their profession sincere. But where are we to find such churches? Are they to be found in the buildings of the national establishment, or in

* Article XIX. of the Church of England.

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those where the dissenters worship? In the buildings of the national establishment, indeed, there are congregations; but mere congregations cannot be regarded as churches, according to this description of a church, for there are many in every such congregation who are not, in the sense of the term already given, faithful men, and who ought not, therefore, to have a voice in any body which purports to be a church.

Besides, if such congregations are to be regarded as the church, how are we to hear them, for they never speak? And even if they were to speak, and, in some way or other, to make known their sentiments on religion, it is certain that they would put forth very different notions, and opinions, in many cases, opposed the one to the other. Indeed, so various and so opposite are the opinions held by different congregations, all worshipping in these consecrated buildings, and claiming to be regarded as the church, or an integral part of the church, that it has grown into a custom to distinguish some as evangelical, thereby intimating that others are not so; and