to be unnecessary, and retaining only what had a direct tendency to illustrate this single controversy.

I am fully sensible that we have a great abundance of Polemical works, and very many of them truly valuable; and I am far from thinking that he who adds to the number, must so much as pretend to excel all that have gone before him; I am certain that I make no such pretence. But what I have chicfly proposed to myself is to compose a work which shall not only in size hold a middle rank between the more voluminous expositions and the mere brief and abstract summaries of this controversy, but also in its contents comprise more particulars relative to this question than were ever before comprehended in one volume. Accordingly I have not permitted a single objection to escape my notice, but have investigated, and attempted to refute, the most trifling and frivolous, as well as the more grievous complaints against the Doctrines and Discipline of our National Church; because it has been my desire to make the grounds of attachment to that Church so manifest, that if it were possible, no doubt or scruple respecting them might remain with any one.

I have seen fit to arrange the work in question and answer for a variety of reasons; first, because as such it will be more intelligible; secondly, because the arguments will be more easily remembered; thirdly, that they not only dwell longer upon the memory, but that in question and answer, the whole becomes more immediately applicable to personal conference; and, lastly, because I am decidedly of opinion, that the generality of readers are more inclined to accept of argumentative reasoning and controversy through the medium of question and answer, than in any other way.

I have now only to intreat the exercise of patience, candour, and impartiality in every reader during his perusal of the following pages, whatever his religious opinions may be. If he be a Dissenter from the Church of England, I trust it may awaken him to enquire into the propriety of those grounds for his Nonconformity, in which he has probably acquiesced without particular examination: I would have him remember that as a Layman, I am neither personally connected with, nor immediately interested in, the success or failure of the unpopular notions which I have herein professed, and for which I have pleaded, by answering objections against them; and that as I was neither born nor educated in the Communion of that Church, my arguments ought to be read with greater candour and attention, and myself, for the same reason, be regarded with the less suspicion. I can assure him, that I feel heartily sorry that there should be any occasion for a book of this nature, because, "as far as in me lies," it is my desire to "live peaceably with all men," of every religious denomination.

I would recommend every Churchman, who may honour this volume with a perusal, to "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free," and having "proved all things, to hold fast that which is good." I would remind him that in the success of this question, the honour of his Church and Religion is immediately concerned, and, therefore, that it is essentially necessary for him to be made acquainted with a subject which so certainly deserves his most serious attention; and I am sure he will not consider his time ill-employed thereon, when he reflects on its importance to his own private satisfaction, and to public security. Finally, I would enforce upon him,

(and indeed upon all of us who are Members of the Church of England,) a careful and diligent observance of the sacred prescriptions of that Church to piety and holiness, that by the purity of our lives we may stop the reproaches, and shame the calumnies of our adversaries; because let our Church be ever so much better than their's, (and I trust we all think so,) if we be not also proportionably better than they and other men, she will rise up in judgment against us at the last.

I shall only add here my earnest prayer to Almighty God, who can make the meanest instrument effectual to his glory, and the good of his Church, that He would be pleased to give a blessing to this volume, that it may be successful in "bringing into the way of truth, all such as have erred, and are deceived."

SYNOPSIS OF OBJECTIONS

AGAINST

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

I conscientiously dissent from the Church of England, and in so doing I am no Schismatic from the Church of Christ; because according to the Scriptural idea of the Nature and authority of Christ's Church, and of the Nature of Communion with, and Schism from it, I may separate from the Church of England, and nevertheless continue a Member of the Church of Christ; moreover in my separation from the Church of England, I am not only no Schismatic from the Church of Christ, but I am also no Schismatic from the Church of England, for in like manner the Church of England separated from the Church of Rome, and thereby justified my separation; for first, the Church of England separated from the Church of Rome under a full persuasion that she ought to have done so, and I separate from the Church of England under a similar persuasion that I ought to do so; secondly, the Church of England separated from the Church of Rome for greater purity of Doctrines, Worship, and Ordinances, and for the same reason I separate from the Church of England; and thirdly, with respect to the Authority by which the conditions of Communion are prescribed, as the Church of England denies that the Bishop of Rome has any just authority to make rules for her Communion, or to prescribe laws for her government, so I question the lawfulness of that authority by which the Liturgy is established, and those Rites and Ceremonies against which I object, are required, because I see no right or warrant in Scripture that Bishops should either singly or jointly, either with the civil authority or without it, prescribe to their Congregations in Ecclesiastical affairs, because in a matter concerning his own Salvation I am persuaded that every man ought to be left to the direction of his conscience, the following of which will justify him in any mode of conduct he may adopt ; especially in his choice of a Religion, because Christian Liberty gives every man a right to worship God in his own way; in which persuasion Į am confirmed by the many appeals made in the Scriptures to the private judgment of each individual Christian, requiring him to ས prove all things," to "search the Scriptures" for himself, and to

"try the spirits," without regard to any Church in so important a matter. But even if it were otherwise, I consider I have many weighty reasons for my dissent from the Church of England.

First, I object to her general constitution as National and Established; which of itself alone would oblige me to dissent from her Communion, even though the Doctrines preached in her be the Doctrines of the Gospel, and her Ministers practised what they preached. For a National Church is an Institution fundamentally unlawful, and abstractedly sinful; it has not only no sanction either in the Old or New Testaments, but we find that it was decidedly opposed to our blessed Saviour's intentions, because he declared that "his Kingdom was not of this World." A National Church is moreover a perfectly unnecessary Institution; for, although it may be pretended that it is expedient for the preservation of morality and religion in a Nation, yet this is confuted by the simple fact of the purity of Doctrine and Morals among Members of Dissenting Communities; indeed to adduce such an argument, is nothing less than to make a National Church usurp what is exclusively the office of the Holy Spirit, and to interfere with the Doctrine of God's Super. intending Providence. The case of the Primitive Church of Christ is a conclusive proof that National Church Establishments are unnecessary, as well as the case of England during the Protectorate of Cromwell, and that of the United States of America in the present day. I think it certain that Christianity will propagate itself, or at least that it may be safely committed to the Providence of God, and the voluntary agency of individuals; it being reasonable to suppose that the supply of religious instruction will always accommodate itself to the demand; and, therefore, that if a people value such religious instruction, a National Church Establishment is unnecessary, and if they do not, it can be of little or no use. I am also of opinion that the advantages of Dissenting Communities are not only fully commensurate with those of a National Church, but that there is a decided tendency in a bad National Church to perpetuate error; and that vital personal Religion will always flourish in a country under the Providence of God, without the assistance of a good one, and be much purer both in doctrine and discipline, than if cramped and thwarted by its trammels. In a word, as I believe the Church of England to be but very imperfectly reformed from the corruptions of Popery, so I look upon her Nationality as one of the most glaring of those corruptions, making the Church a political institution, and a mere engine of the State. Nor is this all, the Church of England derogates from, and strikes at, the "Headship of Christ;" for although St. Paul has affirmed Christ to be the "Head of his Body, the Church,"* yet the Church of England has robbed Christ of that Supremacy, and transferred it to a mortal man, whom she impiously styles "the Supreme Head

*Coloss. i. 18,