acknowledged and lamented by true Christians of every subordinate name, that the tendency of ease and prosperity is to weaken the evidence of Christian principle as the sure foundation of Christian profession. Let us then remember that no regularity in the observance of outward ordinances, no zeal in the defence of particular usages, no stedfastness of adherence to the most scriptural church, can make amends for the absence of true repentance towards God, of a lively faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the proofs of a spiritual union with Him, in holiness of heart and life. The test of poverty, contempt, and persecution, is now in a great measure withdrawn, and it is an easy thing to be called a Christian and to maintain such an outward consistency of conduct as will satisfy the expectations of society: but it is not the less necessary, nay it is much more so, that we should apply the scriptural tests of Christian character individually to our own state of heart in the sight of God, remembering that whatever be the condition of the church in our day, a test awaits us all, of infinitely greater severity than any to which even early Christianity was exposed.

The time is coming when the stony ground, and that which has borne only briars and thorns, however fenced about by the pale of outward profession and sown with the seed of the word, shall be rejected and cursed; when the door shall be shut on the foolish virgins; the worthless part of the draught be cast out of the net; the tares be separated from the wheat, and gathered up in bundles to be burned.

God grant that in that day, when the wood, hay, and stubble of Christian profession, shall be destroyed, our foundation may be sure, and our superstructure be like gold, silver, precious stones, to the glory of God and our own eternal comfort.

LECTURE V.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AS A NATIONAL
INSTITUTION.

THE KING'S SUPREMACY.

1 PETER ii. 13-15.

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

THE lawfulness and usefulness of state establishments of religion has thus far been asserted on general grounds, without reference to the internal regulations of the system established, or the particular mode in which it may be connected with the

state.

The principle which I trust has been satisfactorily maintained, that from the very design of his

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office, from the wants and weaknesses of those who are subject to his sway, and from the precepts and examples of holy writ, it becomes the duty of the ruler both towards God and his people, to extend his official aid towards the propagation and maintenance of religion within his realm, applies alike, though with material difference in the degree of application, to a system, in which, as in some of the American settlements, state provision is, or was made, merely for the support of religion in some form, the people of respective districts selecting that which was most agreeable to themselves; or to one in which, as in the Church of Rome, and the Presbyterian Establishment of Scotland, the act of endowment is deemed almost the sole province of the state, and the most jealous precautions are used to prevent all interference on its part with matters of ecclesiastical arrangement; or to one in which, as in the English Establishment, a direct power of controul and regulation on the part of the state, as to the doctrine and discipline established, no less than the external mode of administration, is fully recognized and allowed.

Those therefore, who admit the general principle, which indeed belongs to natural no less than revealed religion, to the various modifications of false no less than of true worship, that the ruler who merely believes that there is a God, and acknowledges His providence in the affairs of nations, is bound in policy and in duty, to do what he can for the promotion of divine worship, may yet see great objections either to the recognized mode of worship, or the

means whereby it is recognized and supported in any particular community. This was the position occupied with respect to the Church of England by the fathers of dissent, the Puritans and Nonconformists, from the days of Queen Elizabeth to our own, who, in the public and private attempts at comprehension which were made from time to time, invariably declared their readiness to conform to the established church, if only certain concessions and alterations could be allowed; the doctrine that conformity to an establishment was unscriptural and sinful, simply because it was an establishment, never seeming to have suggested itself to the most scrupulous conscience, the most acute and casuistical judgement.

As however the ancient position is not abandoned by the advocates of this novel opinion, though they have certainly retreated from not a few of the posts which were once deemed most important to their line either of attack or defence, I proceed to consider the application of the general principles already laid down, to the particular case of the Church of England, and would invite attention, first, to the mode of its establishment, or the terms of its alliance with the state; and then to some of its most distinguishing features as a Christian society; with the purpose of shewing that on neither ground does it deserve to be forsaken as unscriptural or unreasonable, but that the ordinance of man which establishes it as a main part of the general province of the supreme governor, for the suppression of evil and encouragement of good, demands our submis