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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 32 X 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE OLD PATHS. A LETTER TO A COUNTRY CONGREGATION FROM A MISSIONARY OF THE CHURCH. TO THE MEMB£B8 OF THE CHURCH, MATILDA. Brockville, April 6, 1843. Dearly Beloved Brethren, At the request of one highly esteemed, by you and by me, for his work's sake and his own sake, — ^your minister, — I address you on a subject which, on other grounds, could make no claim to special notice. I allude to a letter handed to me immediately ai^er a funeral at Matilda, and written by a teacher of one of the subdivisions of one of those unhappy schisms which are weakening the influences of true religion, wasting the energies of Protestantism, bringing con- tempt on our holy faith, furnishing plausible arguments to the grand schism of schisms — Popery, — countenan- cing the sophistries of infidelity, and thus (albeit unintentionally, but still most surely and effectually) doing the will of the adversary. The letter was directed to the " Re.'. £. Denroche, Matilda," and runs thus : " Matilda, March 13, 1843. '* Rev. and Dear Sir, " The regular successors of the apostbs are holding a protracted meeting in this vicinity, where souls are being converted to God. There is a priyer meeting at the house of George Brousc, Esq., this day, at two o'clock, P. M., to which meeting you are by this note cordially invited to attend to, for the purpose of getting your soiii converted to God, if you had experienced that change, I have no doubt yen would make an able minister of Uie New Testament, end become one of the reg nlar gnce-es- tors in fact u I remain, Rev. and Dear Sir, «t Your' «( 's affectionately, Daniel Bebmet, W.M.M. >* Had I not most reasonable grounda to fear that ♦he " note'* of this total stranger was neither sitwere tnUt nature nor kind in its intention, I should have re- plied to it. But being convinced, from its internal evidence and from incidental circnnistances, that the spirit nhich dictated it was not prepared to be bene- fited in the smallest degree by such a reply as I must have returned, I determined to take no notice of the matter ; — in short, to " answer him not." Whether the inferences leading to this determina- tion were fairly and fully deducible, you, brethren, may soon judge. Those of you who were present on that solemn occasion are aware, that a number of the teachers and other maintaibers of Methodism entered our Church, and with eye and ear witnessed me earnestly «ad deliberately exhorting you to eschew the sin of schism, as hateful to God, contrary to Christ's will, forbidden of His Spirit, injurious to the truth, and detrimental to charity. These persons must have heard me affec- tionately and solemnly warning you to the effect that you should not suffer the seed of Satan— of him whose motto is, " Divide and conquer," — to be sown among you. They must have heard it enjoined upon you, as faithful members of Christ, answerable to God for the souls of your children, to give no countenance whatever, by example or otherwise, to the practice of this or any other "abominable thing which God hateth" — "not to give heed to seducing spirits" and unscriptural doctrines — not to listen to " the voice of strangers," nor to " heap to yourselves teachers having itching ears;" but to "abide faithful" to your vows, faithful to your Saviour, as living members of His own Body the Church— as sound in doctrine, pure in practice, " renewed in the spirit of your minds from day to day," and " growing up into Him in all things which is the Head." They must have heard you seasonably though not ably cautioned never to a mistake a ready tongue (that flippancy in talking about high and holy things so much in repute among Dis- senters) for evidence of real godliness — for "the witness of the Spirit," or the test of truth — to preach Christ in your conduct and conversation — to shew forth the gospel not only with your lips, but also in your lives — to pray together and to read God's word TOGETHER — as Opportunity offered, to receive at the hands of your God-commissioned minister thedivinely- appointed memorials of the Lord's love — to bring your infant children into the covenant of grace, through a baptism and ministry, both of divine appointment — to recollect that the dispensation of sacraments, the holy mysteries of the faith, was not committed to all Christian men, women and children, but to persons in the first instance specially chosen of Christ, and afterwards to those by them specially set apart to "minister in holy things," who, again appointing others, were thus to preserve valid ordinances through a valid ministry— to be assured that, how plausible soever the pretensions of any assuming to themselves the title of ministers of the Church of Christ, yet if they could neither prove their commission from Him, either by succession (as belonging to the apostolic ministry), or by miracle (as belonging to some newer sort of ministry authorised of God), they act without warrant and on mere presumption — they "run without being sent," and cannot prove that their rites are valid sacraments. These same persons heard me enjoining you, while you carefully avoided those who oppose themselves to the Church and to the doctrines thereof— the doctrines maintained and defended by the Reformers and that holy army of martyrs who laid down their lives for truth's sake — to entertain feelings of chanty towaruB the errorisis theiuiieives, and to manifest those feelings in acts 6f personal kindness towards them whenever it lay in your power •0 Co do. They heard me beseeching you to ** be •teadftst, immoTeable, always abounding in the work of the Lord** — "steadfast in the apostles* doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers'* — steadfast in being "holy in al! manner of conversation** — steadfast in "walking worthy of the high vocation wherewith ye were called,** and, while steadfast in " marking them that caused divisions and in avoiding them,*' to " do good unto all men.*' Now, it seems to me morally impossible that any one of common understanding, after listening to these, or such like remarks, could reatxt believe in his HEART that the person who uttered them would him- self, in the next moment, be induced to commit the crime against which he had most particularly and strenuously raised his voice, and to plunge headlong into the hottest flames of fanaticism — not for the pur- pose of "plucking** some "as brands from the burn- ing'* — not for the purpose of "converting** poor deluded souls from " the error of their way** — not for the purpose of testifying a real heartfelt love for the souls of the Methodists by exposing to them the true nature, working and tendency of the delusive system which leads them captive — the thorough monstrous- ness of modern Methodism, to wit, its almost entire opposition to that Methodism commenced by Church of England Clergymen a hundred years ago, (by men whose boast it was to have lived and to die within her pak) — its undisguised or ill-disguised hostility to that Church, its carnal character, its multiplied divisions, its Popery, its lying miracles, miraculous conversions, visions and dreams ; its system of a con- fession, couipulsory on pain of excommunication ; its proselytism, promoted by means the end could never sanctify; its Jesuitism, its decentions. trans and claptraps, class, camp, prayer, protracted and revival riseetings ; its midnight orgies, with all the aocom- ])anying evil and " appearance of evil ;** ita conse« # <^^&i"iif^rii of hbuichbld aMi «tJ e^^n of thi' godly obedfietice dde to the monitions bf parent* bt' ' htisbands; it* phirlseeism, ip\Hiua\ pride and cenio- riottanfeBS; its exclusively arrogating to itsfelf th* character of being the perfection of purity, the quin^ tesuence of sanctification, yea, as on earth, prt- eminently the holy of holies; its dependence (for extension) upon nervous and animal excitements; iW" Socinian and Arian tendencies ; its palpable perse- cution of those iirho forsake the error ; its bigotry, strife, envyings, slanders, divisions, subdivisions: in a word, " the shame of its nakedness;" ^o, not for any one of these purposes, nor yet for the purpose of " trying them -sho say they are apostles and are not," no — but "for the purpose of being converted" converted into a Methodist teacher! As surely a* Mr. Daniel Berney, W. M. M., and those privy to the getting up of the "note," are satisfied of their owrt existence, and convinced that they have heads on their shoulders, so surely mtw^they have been moballt CERTAIN that there was not the shadow of a probability that he to whom it was addressed could be swayed thereby to run after its run-away writer to any of thei^ meetings for any such wicked purpose — to run after a person who cither did not think it prudent, or not ^orth his while, to " bide a wee" and " speak face to face" the matter of his note. He must have known that a few minutes would have left me at leisure to hear any such remarks as he might have thought proper to make. • u I could NOT conceive that Mr. Beiftfef s note was «i reality an honest and kind one. Its want of sincerity ahd good feeling— its invitation given when he must ?*^1^? J^nbwn that it could not be accepted, and its ^ridbin cetisoriousuess, basird on som$ supposed gift Of "discerning of spirits," compelled me to coiii srder its authoi's conduct as a gratmms bravado iri* tended to armdy ; Mobile at tbe^tne tftne I ascribed th* pro«««dint to Methodim in !«• nttml workio< of tt« ^to„ „ther ,h^ of the individuj. ImpresJd wd, ,h«e conviction^ I left the "note" un«pK *nd now only notice it tbu, much for your «S° i Md . the requct of your minbter. If Mr. Bemey "d • good joke, let us leave them in undisturbed ZiT f ' ""•"""y "«" ""O"" »>«='' ■»»" of Chmtain conversion We need not envy them their feelings, nor doubt whether per«,„s of souud judgmem lust Tit d '*'"" ""r^ " '"^ '■»• «« -«™^e i i .i! ™r ^f''"*'' "^ "8»»' Mr. Beraey and his brother Wesley^. Methodist Ministers eonVder Ss conduc ,.a.»r/o/„to&rffo„, (deeming his "affee tionate" thrust a fair hit at one in whose mission two hf^TL .t "°''"'/'* '^™ '■')• I «»» heartily forgive h™ and ,hem, and p«.y that they, and others, Say Kt be convinced of the cuIpabiUty of their present pos-Uon, and of the folly of rhose,'who TsZZl TEBM«.K KOT TO BE CONVINCED, but tO be tO the last the advocates of party,-the partizans of systematic d.v,s.on,_,he unrelenting opposer. of a Church! P~- aTL^'T ■" *"■*"•• ''"«'«'«<= » d-^'rine and -^h .h K,"" ^^"^T- ^'" ""^y ■» V "'' "''"ed that, rimJ^-^K ""r^"'"" '"'«""''"<' HisApostles,''L„ .1. K J"" *'''"^'' *™" ""to ">« end of the world." the humblest contributor to the furtherance oTL cause of conversion-not Methodist conversion-hut inversion to 'Christ and the Church."_wSl take «U.»gly,ye.,joyfuny, if they»«.< com;, the sn^ of tho« who retain the name of We,l«,an whUe thS T^Sw"^ •*"■?• '"^ '^•"^ t"^ princes rf Prexily levelled aoaisst scaisH-tbat Oa, which i< « f < I r ■f wlKD the Church, even od the teBtimeoy of her ene- »ue^ w«/«,fe„ efficient than she b.'been forX YhurchofEngland and Ireland): but that »ow Me- «^od«n, range, itself with her bitterest encn.^!l"'h oera, tiergy or hiity, are converted,— sets up an oddo. S IZZ^A'"'"'^ ministry-the r^b^r.^ Ire com-nIS t? ^l • 'y"™»f i''ot«tant Jesuitism, are compelled, by the supposed necessity of buildine up their would-be-Church, to "compass Land and" e™"rCm'° "•- co»"e-on: is long a, me's «jes are being opened to the fact that these teachers do not scruple to malign the ministers of the ( wj^ ^ tt'J:ii?tr'"!''*"''~P"'-»«"-'^^So"t' •eniple to buUd themselves up on the ruin thev them- wur* J^ '^ ""'• ''""'""^' «""» unsusp^ting Muta w, long as men are opening their eves to t^ m.qmty of . system, which depraves sminUte^ blunts their better feelings, and drives tl em tt^tH: continual commission of pfe^s fraud « Tl are rubbing the scale. frL, .1, • ' "" *' """" vinced of .h. , " """^ "«"• eyes— are being con- vineed of the melancholy truth that modbkn mItho. WSM u essentially defective in honour, hones"v cWUv .ndsuch lite indispensable ingredie'nTof f™^ « .' f^rL'.J" "P^Or'^ -eking ou, "Z o» cii Vrcr? rr > """^« ^''Sa cnuoren of the Church help them on their wa" .0 Z;on, and rejoicein «eing them become fellow SeM with the satnta, and of the household of faith. fe«i3r^^Safe:Sf:-- 1' I §H*H D6t comment ai'any 1«d^ oh Mr. flerni^V jtidgiMtit declaratory of thf prtaixtned unconverted state — a judgment evincing ffloi'e fra^te than charity, considering that he has never been acqutlinted trith me. ** It is a little thing to be judged of him or of rhdn*s judgnie.it." Would that they whd fancy thtm- selves possessed of the discerning of spirits, ^ere con- verted to kn obedience of Christ's command : "Judge not and ye shall not be judge^d," a text seemingly' in little repute with the admirers of Methodism as it is. If Methodist conversion was Christian conversion, there would be more of the spirit of that text evidenced in the converted ; more of the " hnpeth all things ;" nor would the worid witness so frequently the awful falls of many boasted "fconverts" to the soul-deluding system. I am not without some doubts that, were the Wbslets now living, Mr. Bemey and other Wesleyarf Methodist Ministers would dispute their conversion ; for both John and Charles were streiviously opposed to schism^ and to the impiety of "setting up" preachers of Methodism as ministers of God's sanctuary. In a sermon preached by John, at Cork, in Ireland, a couple of years only before his death, he used these words : " In 1 744, all the Methodist preachers had their first conference ; but none of them dreamed that: the being called to preach gave tiieih any right to administer the sacraments. And when the question was proposed, * In what light are We to consider our- selves ?' it was answered, * As extraordinary messen- gers, raised up to provoke the ordinary ones to jea- lousy !' In order hereto, one of our first rules was given to each preacher : * You are to do that part of the work which we appoint.' But what work was this? Did we ever appoint you to administer sacraihents, to exercise the priestly office P Such a design never c«- tered into our minds; it was the farthest from ou^ th(mghts. And if any preacher hiad taketr such a step^ we should have looked upon it as a palpable breach I / of this rule aod consequently at a recantation of our connexion; lor, suppose (what I utterly deny) that the receiving you as a preacher at the same tiipe gave an authority to administer the sacraments, yet it gave you no other authority than to do it or* any thing else where I appoint. But where did I appoint you to do this? No where at all. Therefore by this very rule you are excluded Irom doing it ; and doing it you renounce the first principle of Methodism. Now as long as the Methodists keep to this plan they cannot aeparate fnm tub Ciiuuch. * * * 1 believe one reason why God is pleased to continue my life so long, is, to confirm them in their present purpose not to separate from the Church. I wish uU of you, who are vulgarly called Methodists, would seriously consider what has been said ; and particularly you whom God has commis- sioned to call sinners to repentance ; it does by no means follow from hence that you are conmiissioned to baptize or administer the Lord's Supper. Ye never dreamed of this till ten or twenty year* after ye began to preach. Ye did not then, like Korah^ Dathan^ and Abiram, seek the priesthood also. O ! contain yourselves within your own bounds ; be content with preaching the gospel. * * * Ye your- selves were first called in the Church of England ; and though ye have, and will have a thousand temptations to leave it, and set up/or yojirsehesy regard them not ; BB Church-of- England-men still; do not cast away the peculiar glory which God has put upon you, aod frustrate the design of Providence, the very end for which God raised you up."* Such were the words, * The above extracts are taken from a sermon preacbed by the Rev. John Wesley, at Cork, in Irel&nd, about two yeara vz:.^.,.j ,..-..,_,„, -,,.j -fz irr UTT iuui:u tu z:t3 TT UX'KIF, vni. VII, London, 1831. Mr. Wedey, writing afterwardk to tbe Editor of the Dublin Chronicle, somewhat over a year before his death, thus strongly and solemnly recorded bis impressions. ''Unless 10 the almost dying advice of John Wesley to his Iri.h followers. Mr. 3erney is an Irishman, I have heard. Let us now see what were the wishes of Charles Wesley, John s brother and associate. The followine IS extracted from a letter of his to an American clergyman : « I never lost my dread of a separation, or ceased to guard our societies against it. I fre' quently told them, I am your servant, as long as you remam members of the Church of England; but no longer. Should you ever forsake her, you renounce m^. some of our lay preachers very early discovered an inclination to separate, which induced my brother to publish reasons against a separation. As often as it appeared, we be*t down the schismatical spirit. If any one did leave thb Chubch, at the same time he left our Society. For fifty years we kept the sheep in THE FOLD, and having fulfilled the number of our days «»"b_ waited to depart in peace/'f . l^A^Tll ^;,7"/"'- '•*»»'««» evTT yet «aw. I ^,"^7^ "i?* Jr« J .1 nf? ',' "* '''' NOSTBILS." (See Jackson's a Mc^fj"f /'^^f 't^^^^^ P-^*' 26. Jackson was himself L; . I ^ , 'I*' tollowmg exprt.8«ion8 are to be found. «^«t..red thrmyl, the >vritinK, of John Wesley :-" When we forsake the Cl.urcl., God m\\ forsake u,."-" They that are encn.,es to the Church, are enemies to me."-" I will rath™ Io.e twenty Soctien than separate from the Chnrch."--" You cannot be too watchful against evil sr>eaking. „r too lealoas o7, le^Cch r;' 1 ^;»^'-'*"~" I Hve afi die a memb; o the Church of England, and none who regard my judgment f on. the Church; I believe it would be sin so to do."_How strange is ,t that men will not only adopt the name of a n«» fellow creature, whereby to designat'. their religi«„. Jied.^t w.ll select or retain the name of one. whose word« and writing. ful\ch ismTf'^h^ opposed to the sin of neparation-to the siS- tui sebum of those who call themselves » Wesleyans I" whil. they are, " in fact" « Anti- Weslei « " ^^"''^'« ^ ''»"'• «rtAf%"f*r^,"V" '''*^»""<'y. WarMp, and Doctrines Pr'^tedat Burhngton U. S. 1832. The .eventh sermorcon- tain, these remarks of the Rev. Charlei W..l.y. with other*; m ' u The poor Wedcys, were they Dorr on earth, would undoubtedly, in the opinion of Mr. Bemey, need to attend some of his prayer meetings "/or the purpose of getting their souls converted to Ood.'* Mr. Berney unequivocally asserts that the teachers of modern Methodism are "the regular successors of the apostles." " The regular successors of the apos- tles are holding," says his note, " a protracted meet- ing in this vicinity." The Methodist teachers were holdmg the meeting alluded to, and none others, therefore thej/ are the persons described as " the re- gular successors of the apostles. Therefore also, where the writer of the note says, that, if I Wa. con- verted, ''he doubts not I would become otte of the regular successors in fact r he of course means— a Methodist teacher in fact. After this, he surely need not wonder if we glance at the pretensions of the Wesleyan Methodist ministers to be considered " the regular successors of the apostles " "infactr So now for facts. ' Regular successors of the apostles are they who have received regular unt ^uivocal authority in the Church of God, the one body of Christ, to ordain MaUoa 8»atement of Dr. Coke's application to Bishop White of the Protestant Episcopal Church, for the purposes of a "r u° !?*" Methodists with the Church-ara/irf consecration of himself to the Episcopate, or Apostolate-and a valid ordi- nation of those, on whom be had presumptuously laid his un- authorised, uncommissioned, hands. The Kev, Dr. Chapman does not seem to have recollected, when adverting to Coke's consciousness of Ms not being a true bishop, but merely a Me- thodist "superintendent," that he afterwards applied in writ- injr, to Lord Liverpool, to have him consecrated as a Bisbon for India; saying that, if the Prince Regent and the govern- ment would consent, he "would return most fully and faith- fully into the bosom of th(> RefaMUlia,! rk...^i. j — •— .. to all such restrictions m the fulfilment of bi^ office as the foremment and the bench of Bishops at home should think necessary. Such is the source of Methodist ordinationi, or rather superintendeucies. 12 certain men to minister in holy things ; and also, to convey the same special trust and commission of ordammg to persons consecrated by them for that very purpose. The power of ordaining presbyters and deacons was not conveyed to nil ministers, but was entrusted to select persons. Thus, for instance, St. Paul did not charge the Elders, or presbyters, of Ephesus, to "lay hands suddenly on no man," not to receive an accusation against an elder but before a competent number of witnesses ; but he charged their superior, by whatever title he may be called— he charged Timothy, the Bishop of Ephesus, and 1 itus, Bishop of Crete, to ordain elders and deacons. The POWER qf ordaining was limited to that superior order of ministers to which Timothy and Titus belonged: an order not known in the Church by the title of Bishop, but known, during the lives of those whom we strictly call the apostles, by the title of AposOe—a title applied b^ St. Paul himself to Timo- thy, Tttus, Silvanus, and others. Now, the pact is, that the same power of calling to the ministry, a power conveyed by the first apostles exclusively to litus, limothy, and certain others (whether we call these apostles, successors of the apostles, angels of the churches, or bishops)— did they in the same manner convey exclusively to certain others. Pres- byters, though members of an apostolic ministry, were, according to the testimony of all antiquity, without any commission to ordain. They were not the "successors of the apostles," though eligible to be raised to that burdensome dignity ; nor were they invested with the peculiar powers of the apostolate. This system is properly Divine, for it was developed by men inspired by the Spirit of God,— by our Lord's apostles. It has been followed in the Church without any interruption for full fifteen centuries; is con- tinueddown to the present time ; and will continue always, even unto the end of the world. The advo- a 10 cates of Presbyterianism — that is, of the conceit that presbyters may have an official right to ordain withina the intervention of a bishop — have been repeatedly challenged, and all without effect, to produce if they can oNKwell authenticated instance of «icA ordina- tion iu the Church, during the first fifteen centuries, being regarded as a valid and true ordination. It is a FACT also that there is no historic evidence of any presbyter broaching so wild an idea prior to thb HBBETic AeritM, a SEMi-ABiAN, who, aspiring after being made a bishop, was disappointed in his scheme of ambition, and was cast out of the Church for his heretical views, both as to doctrine and discipline. It is also a fact, notorious and indubitable, that ko BISHOP, or, to use Mr. Berney's words, no " regvlar successor of the apostles'' has ever yet conveyed to a Methodist, whether presbyter, or preacher, or teacher, the sacred commission and power to ordain; and conseqently that the Methodist regular succession is NOT an "apostolic succession," and Methodist teachers, and Wesleyan Methodist ministers, are not " the regular successors of the apostles in fact,** however they may be so infancy. Thus we see that the emphatic assertion of Mr. Bemey is contradicted hy facts that furnish evidence, incontrovertible and conclusive, against them " who say they are apostles and are not " in fact. There is another pact which IS m Itself a plain proof that one of the grand apostlea of Methodism, Dr. Thomas Coke, a man who would ftin have persuaded himself and others, that John Wesley had consecrated him to the episcopate, was HOT A BBLiEVBR (after all his efforts to persuade himself into the delusion) in the validity or thb OBDEB8 HE HIM3BU CONPBBBED. Hc did Wt belieVC that h*^ l»i»H ♦}>•♦ «i -^—.1 - •-- tt . . . ., j_ — s- »!,„v icguioi aucccBsion wbiCQ would empower him to ordain as a bishop ; ahd though really a presbyter, hc could not swallow the presby- terian notion. He therefore applied lo Bishop 14 ters, to give himself a valid consecration and to jcceive .he Methodists into the Cbtircb. Joh, We ! Msh» P^:^"%'''f"ao.d...you be called . wsliop. Let the Presh/teriam do what thev please but let the Methodists know tb.ir calling bcuer" invwl""'^ P' ^'- ^'""^ " ''«'""°8 «»»« SO" of 10 talk of an mvuiMe church upon earth ; and would m:ko„ anything else a "p., J figment.'- "neTj not be aware of another fact, to wit-that tte Pa^ l,a,d^ every thing i„ u. p^er to overthrm Einm,pal influence wUhin it, men border, ; and that «he various orders of friars, and the society of Ignat"u. the Roman Church. He may not be aware that popes d»c««te^^, a, ^,J^^ ^^ 121 «t™«T'" *"<=\P>'''"'y proved by the following «t«ct from "Father Paul's History of the Council 1920.— The twelfth of March the pope made a P~m.t.on of nineteen cardinal., for rew^ard of the f^r.1. *" -"■nP«henda«y of those who held the BBSIDEKCE AND INSTITUTION OF BISHOPS TO BE tZ: *"'"' ^"' °'™' "S"'^' "'"'^OKVBB T„™ and dJuotTr ""^^''^ "'^•'"VE THE DEGBEB ; and did not forbear to discover so much to all sorts ot persons upon every occasion."' •nd certain, thai the Vmlu^hV^L., Z^""" "" ">"""V '» »b.i,i„t riffi "l TZ'UZX'^T'''-'^'-'^'' " i i 15 O! that they who deceive themselves into the fond imagination that they are in any sense "regular sue eessors of the apostle.," of Hi.„; ho earnestly pba.I that they who should believe in Him might he onZ successors of those who enjoined Christians to be of "oL h H M '-T'' ""^ *^ ^^^''^ ^''^^^5" to he to^^K ^ ^; ^^^\"'^"^b^rs moving harmoniously body; to be as "a building fitly framed together;" OI that hey would look upon the divisions which are continually sphtting up their own societies, and sepa! ratmg them mto opposition communions— biting and abu8,ng devouring and defaming one another; that they would consider where all this is to end? whether It be not plainly and palpably the very opposite state of things to that for which our blessfd Saviour r«ATEB?j^ea^^ ^ Th:. WM clearly perceived by b^arties in the ventU^of .nH H^ 0/ Buhops, proposed by the Almains, Polonians He bvfle f"'T"''^ ^'r'' '^ *^« Spaniard;, prosecuted doc" ine of the rt°'"'^ ^/ *'r Archbishop of Pari« a« the aoctrine of the Sorbonne, and only crossed by the Italian fac- lagca wDich that nation doth rean from tin. P.,..^.. u \ 01 the Church, and the universal peace of this part ofChrisJen" toZ'''lrdd?l"rH *^*/^^^'°'"'^'' """^ empowered all Bishop. oTthe safn^' rtr^^'T r^'^* '^ ^''''^' ' *■«^'»'« perfecting of ufe Sy of cJrisf "f f ^''!.TJ«»^>'' ^^^ ^I'e edihcation «f X;, °',^''"»* • t" whom God hath committed the care AlIwlTl.P'''l''' '" **^''* ^'^^y'"'^ responsible for their souU 4"h* Ji^'f i" "-"^ P"^"^«*^« «^ ^^'^ Episcopal office th« Jw fr^m/' . * »°y warrant, that their authority w derived from A.;n . ,orc.ng them to exercise it in no otherwi e than .» his subjects and according to his pleasure "-7?r /wJi n See The Church, Vol. vi. ^% ^'- ^'"''' ^»'^^' 16 THINGS IN WHICH SATAN DELIGHTS? whether the spread of gospel truth is not most lamentably im- peded by the divisions of its professors ? whether the most zealous maintainers of the Tridentine schism— of Popery and its worst corruptions; whether the bitterest abettors of infidel blasphemy would not be disappomted and cut to the heart, if they had to witness ONE NOBLE SPECTACLE—the rk- GENBRATION OP DISSENTING PROTESTANTISM ; if thcv had to behold all Protestant Dissenters, laying aside their private interpretations, various views, and sepa- rate mterests, returning to a hearty profession of the Catholic creeds, the bulwarks of Protestantism, and again graffed \u ^ goodly scions into the branches of God 8 own vine, the chuech— that visible, universal, and Protestant Church which the pope endeavoured to destroy by the instrumentality of his Jesuit-friars ? A FACT indeed. They preached as puritans in Puri. tan pulpits through England, reviling the Prayer- Book as " the English Mass-Bookr and teaching the people to pray " spiritually and extemporer One of them. Cummin, a friar, stated in Council that " this hath so taken with the people that the Chrrch of England is become as odious to that sort of people whom I instructed, (the Puritans) as the mass is to the Church of England, and this will be a stumbling- block to that Church as long as it is a Church." The pope rewarded this individual for his good services with two thousand ducats. Alae! in these days he need not pay Papists to malign the Church of J^ rigland, when Protestants-in-name are ready to re- vile her without fee or reward, and yet, God knoweth. they may " have their reward." Again, it would be well for those Protestant Dis- senters, whose thoughts are everywhere turned to anscnptural schemes of Christian union, to ask them- selves honestly whether the enemies of true religion arc not well pleased to see the opposing Protestant 17 sects wasting their energies in pursuing the hollow humbug of a union based on the rotten expedient of a temporary sinking of their differences, in running after an igids-fatuus^ which will leave them at last in deeper darkness, in grasping at a shadow when they might have laid hold on and secured the substance ? Most assuredly that course which the powers of darkness, and of Popery, and of blasphemy, must regard as strengthening their odious interests, is not, cannot be the proper one for those who have the love of God at heart to pursue. Would to God that Protestant Dissenters would ask themselves these questions, and answer them honestly to their con- sciences in the sight of God ; that they would " con- sider their ways ;" for then would the sober-minded among them rise superior to pctcy interests and party feelings, return both to the doctrine and communion of the apostles, eat of the one bread, and drink of the ONE CUP ; they would flee to the refuge of God's own appointment, the ark of his Church ; they would return "as doves to their windows," bearing with them the tokens of peace — indications of the truth that the happy hour must come, when the angry waters of strife that now foam out their own shame shall subside ; the visible ark, provided by the wisdom and goodness of God, be no longer necessary ; and the Church militant here on earth be absorbed into the Church triumphant in heavf They who presume to say that the hearts of true Churchmen do not yearn after the 'souls of Dis- senters, both Popish and Protestant, know nothing OF TRUE. CHURCHMEN, — Understand " neither what they say, nor whereof they Rgirm." There is not one deserving the name who would not joyfully lay down his life if by so doing he might reclaim schismatics to the apostles' doctritie and fellowship, to the obe- dience of Christ; and thus be instrumental in re- pairing the breaches of Zion, and building up the c 18 walls of Jerusalem. The (rue Churchman, though conscious that his testimony against error will neces- sarily bear traces of the infirmities that encompass him, will yet unhesitatingly and honestly bear witness against the evil. He desires to draw a broad distinction between the error he is bound to hate, and the errorist whom he is equally bound to love. ' He feels that when the Word of Him, who is love, enjoins him to " mark them that cause divisions and to avoid them," it is most certain that such avoid- ance is really an act of godly charity, and a God- prescribed testimony against sin, against the ttrength of Satan, against that abominable thing whereon God hath set the broad brand of condemnation. DIVI- SION—SCHISM. Praying that He may keep you stedfast and im- moveable, always aboundingin the work of the Lord ; and that all who profess and call themselves Chris- tians, may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life, I have the privilege of subscribing myself, Dear Brethren, Your Servant for Christ's sake, E. Deneoche. bYtdii p(/s /?V3 ^«serv*e