How did they cherish union! How alarmed were they at any thing that might tend to wound it! What zeal in applying an immediate remedy! What a horror of schism! They have assigned it its place at the head of all crimes, looking upon it as the most fatal of all prevarications. They understood better than we the spirit of christianity, and discovered more clearly the noble views of our divine legislator. Oh! if these views had been as seriously considered and as thoroughly felt by all christians, if the necessary attention and obedience had always been paid to the precepts of Scripture and to the doctrine of the fathers, the sectarian would never have dreamed of making a party and of dividing the Church, or, if he had undertaken it, he would have found himself forsaken by the people. Woe to us, whom the vile interests of the earth have so often turned from the interests of heaven! Woe to us who are assailed by ignorance and blinded by passion! But when ignorance, our passions and interest have ceased to blind us, and when truth shews itself to us in full splendour, a thousand times woe to us, if we persist in the separation, after having acknowledged its revolting and antichristian principle, and the frightful consequences that ensue from it.

It would have been easy for me to lengthen these quotations, by adding what has been written upon this subject, during the first five ages by Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Firmilian of Cesarea, Theophilus of Antioch, Lactantius, Eusebius, Ambrose, &c., and after so many illustrious testimonies, the decisions of the bishops united in a body in the particular councils of Elvira, in 305; of Arles, in 314; of Gaugres, towards 360; of Saragossa, 318; of Carthage, 398; of Turin, 399;

of Toledo, 400; of Constantinople, 381; of Ephesus, 431; of Chalcedon, 451. I prefer calling your attention to authorities, which, for being more modern, will not on that account, perhaps, appear less strong in your eyes, and no doubt will astonish you the more.

The confession of Augsburgh (Art. 7): "We "teach that this one holy Church will exist always. "For true unity of the Church, it suffices to agree "in the doctrine of the gospel and the administration "of the sacraments, as St. Paul said, one faith, one "baptism, one God, the Father of all."

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The Catechism of Geneva (Sunday XVI), teaches that, "No one can obtain the pardon of his sins, unless he be first incorporated in the people "of God, and persevere in the communion of the body of Christ:-Thus therefore there would "be nothing but damnation and death for him "who is out of the Church. Yes, without " doubt, all those who separate from the communion "of the faithful, to form a separate sect, must never expect salvation as long as they remain in that "state of separation."

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The Helvetian Confession (Art. 12), speaking of the assemblies held by the faithful in all times since the apostles, adds: "All those who despise "them and separate from them despise the true

religion, and should be urged by the pastors and godly magistrates not to persist obstinately in "their separation."

The Gallican Confession (Art. 16): "We "believe that no one is permitted to withdraw from "the assemblies of worship, but that all ought to “maintain the unity of the Church; .... and that "whoever strays from it, resists the order of God."

The 18th Article of the English convocation, 1562, teaches the same doctrine almost in the same

terms.

The Scotch confession (Art. 27); "We firmly "believe that the Church is one ......... We utterly "detest the blasphemies of those who pretend that "all men, by following equity and justice, what

ever religion they otherwise profess, shall be "saved. For without Christ, there is neither life 66 nor Salvation."

The Belgic confession: "We believe and con❝fess one only Catholic Church. Whoever "forsakes this true Church, manifestly revolts "against the ordinance of God."

The Saxon confession (Art. 12); "It is a "great consolation for us to know that there are no "inheritors of eternal life except in the assembly of "the elect, according to that, whom he has pre"destinated, them has he called."

The Bohemian confession (Art. 8); "We have "been taught that all ought to keep the unity of "the Church. .... .; that no one should introduce "sects or excite sedition, but that every one should 66 prove himself a true member of the Church in the "bond of peace and in unanimity of sentiment." How strange and deplorable was the blindness of these men, not to have known how to apply these principles to the time that preceded the preaching of Luther! What was so true, when they drew up their confessions of faith, was equally so, no doubt, at that time.

Even Calvin teaches "that to forsake the "Church is to deny Jesus Christ: that we must be "greatly upon our guard against so criminal a

separation; that a more atrocious crime "cannot be imagined, than that of violating, by a

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perfidious sacrilege, the covenant which the only "Son of God has deigned to contract with us. Unhappy man! What a sentence has escaped his mouth. He will for ever be his own condemnation.

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In 1680, Henchman, bishop of London, wishing to shew the dissenters the necessity of ending their schism, thought he should more effectually accomplish his object, if the Calvinistic ministers from without would join their voices with his: he wrote to M. Claude and to M. de l'Angle, ministers of Charenton, and to M. le Mayne, professor of divinity at Leyden: they all three entered into his views and gave him their opinion in writing. De l'Angle sets forth" that all those, who, from hatred to the episcopacy, forsake the established Church were guilty of a very great crime; for schism (said he), "is the most terrible calamity than can befall the "Church." Claude exhorts the English dissenters to consider, "whether their system is not in direct "contradiction to the spirit of Christianity, which " is a spirit of union, of social and fraternal intercourse, and never a spirit of division ......... My "Lord (continues he), I have not the least scruple "in having recourse to violent remedies against the "procedure of those who form a separate party, "avoid the assemblies of the faithful, and withdraw "themselves from your authority. Such conduct "evidently amounts to a positive schism, a crime "detestable in itself and abominable before God and

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'Inst. book IV.-Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. II. p. 899 and 900. Folio edition.

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man; those who incur its guilt, either by being its “first promoters, or the supporters of it in others, "must expect to render a terrible accouut at the

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great day of judgment." And yet, neither Claude, nor de l'Angle, nor Henchman, had any notion of applying to themselves and their predecessors that well-founded threat, they so emphatically held out against the Calvinists of England!!

I have under my eye many more passages in which Melanchton, Peter Martyr, Gerhard, du Plessis, &c. and before them John Huss, teach the same doctrine. I turn them aside, to bring before you some of the most distinguished divines of your own Church. James I. the second supreme governor in spirituals, and his theologian, Casaubon, in their reply to the Cardinal du Perron, acknowledge in plain terms," that there is no hope for salvation for "those who are separated from the Catholic Church' "or from its communion." "Touching the sin of

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dividing the Church," says Dr. Goodman,' "that "it is of the deepest dye and greatest guilt, I suppose "we shall easily agree; for indeed no body can well "doubt of that, who considers what care our Saviour "took to prevent it, what pains he took with his' "apostles that they might be thoroughly instructed " and not differ in the delivery of his mind to the' "world, and with what extraordinary ardour he "prayed for them upon this very account. John 17, ❝ 11. And the Apostles themselves answered their

'A Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England. Page 106-7, Part II. chap. 2nd, 3rd Edition, London, 1675.