with any denomination, may well attract the benevolent enterprise of all denominations; and in gathering these into the fold of Christ, each denomination may make full proof of its zeal, enterprise, numbers, piety or wealth. The world, also, is open before us; and in our judgment, happy, thrice happy, is that denomination who will be able to present the largest portion of mankind rescued from idolatry, and reconciled to God, by its benevolent exertions. And we cannot but indulge the hope, that the time is at hand, when the entire zeal of Christian denominations will be turned away from pitiful, selfish, irritating efforts to proselyte from each other; and will flow forth, in deep and copious streams of benevolence, to proselyte the world, from the worship of idols, to the worship of the living God.

It was upon this principle, of not interfering with others in the benevolent effort to build up the cause of Christ, that Paul kept himself aloof from the places where the other apostles had labored and planted churches; and that the prohibition was given to ministers and Christians, when all were of one denomination, not to be busybodies in other men's matters. Indeed, this is a rule, the violation of which, every man condemns, however much he may violate it towards others, when the violation of it is made to bear against his own society or denomination. Should a Congregational minister go into a peaceable and well ordered Baptist, or Methodist, or Episcopal society, and endeavor to plant the seeds of doubt, alienation, and schism, in the bosom of those happy communities, he would be considered, and justly, as violating the rules of the Gospel.

3. It is a right of Christian denominations, being fully persuaded in their own minds, to be steadfast and immoveable in their own way.

Because under every modification of Christian doctrine or form of Christian worship, men may be pious and accepted of God, it does not follow that all denominations embrace the truth equally; or that, in either way there is the same probability that men will be converted, or that they will be equally edified for heaven. It is our duty to choose our denomination, and then, fully persuaded in our own mind, to worship God in it, in sincerity and in truth. Some, supposing it to be a matter of little consequence, to what denomination they belong, can scarcely be said to belong to any. Today they are here, and tomorrow there. But life is too short for a man to live long undecided in what way he will worship God, and promote actively his visible kingdom on earth; and is too short, also, for a man to be changing often from one way of worship to another. For the unstable as water, are not those who excel, either in personal piety, or public usefulness. Besides, if a tree will produce just as good fruit, and just as much, in one vineyard as in another; it does not follow, that it ought, every

year, to be plucked up by the roots, and set out in another vineyard. Such emigrating trees would soon become trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.

The result of our observation, in the course of a short life, is, that the men who are so catholic as to feel no preference for any particular denomination, but love all alike, praying and hearing, a little here, and a little there, and not much anywhere, are, in fact, men of no religious principle, and are only making merchandise of their religion, to answer the purposes of secular gain, or a low ambition. There is a fish in the ocean, which never continues in one stay, but floats up and down with the tide, and bites only as it happens to meet a hook which is baited. Now these tide-fish in a religious community, who are everywhere and nowhere, and bite only as the tide suits, and the hook is baited, are of little value to the cause of Christ, in any form. They seek their own selves, not Jesus Christ. The interests of religion are promoted by a precision of faith, and a decision of friendship and profession, in some form of public worship. This steadfastness of character, when it hinders the invasions of proselyting zeal, is sometimes denominated stubborness, prejudice, and bigotry. But it is neither. It is a full persuasion of what is right, which every man owes to his own soul, and to his children, and to his God.

Such are the Rights of Christian denominations. The following are some of the relative duties which they owe to each other. 1. They are called to the exercise of mutual benevolence, or good will.

This is obligatory upon individuals unallied by the ties of civil association, and upon all the members of civil communities, and even upon enemies. It is that charity which is the bond of perfectness, i. e. the temper which constitutes perfect society. Its obligation results from our relations to each other as intelligent beings, and our capacities of enjoyment and usefulness; and exists, independent of personal character and individual desert. The glorious God, who is love, has set us the example. He feels benevolently toward his sinful family, and has given his Son to die for us all, and sends down his blessings upon the evil and the unthankful. In the exercise of such benevolence toward all men, even enemies, Jesus Christ has bound us by his precept and by his example. But surely, on becoming Christians, we do not shake off these obligations of universal benevolence. It is the very object of the Gospel to revive it in our hearts, and of sanctification to perfect it under every form which the Christian church assumes. That benevolent regard, then, which Christians owe to all men, and even to enemies, they do most certainly owe to each other. Under the influence of this general benevolence, each Christian denomination is bound to regard with pleasure the

regular prosperity and usefulness of other Christian denominations; and each is bound to render to the others, all assistance, when there is an opportunity, which is not inconsistent with its own lawful preservation and prosperity. Benevolence requires us to do good unto all men, and even unto enemies, as we have opportunity, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. 2. Christian denominations are bound to regard each other with complacency.

Those feelings which we are bound to cultivate toward individual Christians, whom we acknowledge as such, we are bound to cultivate towards churches which we allow to be churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. We may perceive in individual Christians, defects of character, which we cannot regard with complacency; but this is no reason why we should not regard with approbation whatever excellent traits of character we may perceive. And we may see in other denominations, what to us may seem defects in organization and in practice; but this is no reason why we should withhold from them the tribute of brotherly love for those things which are true, and excellent, and of good report. The disciples judged, that, because a man, whom they found casting out devils, followed not them, therefore they were to regard him as an enemy; but Jesus told them, No, he is not our enemy. He may not cast out devils in a manner as salutary as that in which you do it; but, if he cast them out at all, he is our friend, and is to be regarded as such. Now no denomination regards another as promoting the cause of Christ, in all respects, in the best manner. All think that their way of casting out devils is the best. But Jesus has decided that, while we may innocently indulge this partiality in our own favor, we must love one another, with a pure heart, fervently. We need not feel complacency in each other's supposed defects; but we may, and we must rejoice, that the Gospel is preached, and that souls are saved, even though we should think the good done is accomplished in a way less perfect than our own. It would be a sad thing, if real Christians could not be willing that sinners should be converted to God, and fitted for heaven in any way but the very best way, i. e. in any way but their own.'

All associations of men, affording credible evidence of piety, united for the maintenance of God's worship and ordinances, are churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ought, doubtless, to acknowledge each other as such. The general obligations of church fellowship are unequivocally revealed in the New Testament, and nothing, it is admitted, can possibly vacate this obligation when real Christians are associated, except some supposed defects in the forms of their associations. But it is a maxim .perfectly obvious, that forms are important, only as the means of attaining an end; and where they have been employed with such a degree of exactness as secures the end, and all its ordinary bene

fits, the end is not to be abandoned on account of any circumstantial variety in the forms by which it is obtained. If we were under the Jewish dispensation, the case would be different; for there, everything was local, and typical, and accommodated to the state of the world, and the exigencies of the church, at that time. Thus, to stem the tide of idolatry rolling in upon the world, a temple must be built. And there must be different orders in the priesthood-the high priest, the common or officiating priests, and the Levites, including one twelfth part of the nation, without inheritance, and living on tythes and offerings. To prevent intrusion into the priest's office, and confusion of the order, the mode of consecration was indispensable to the validity of the office. And, as one object of this worship of rites, was, in a semi-barbarous age, to hold men back from idolatry by the senses, and the power of habit; and another, to select as parts of God's worship, things which were an abomination in idol worship; and another, to strengthen the social ties, by a convocation of the nation at its capital and temple, three times a year; and a fourth, to exhibit the strictness of the law, by multiplying rites and ceremonies, which, being the occasion of frequent trespass, might teach the impossibility of being justified by the law, while the instituted sacrifices and atonements should direct them to the Messiah and his great expiation ;-it follows, of course, that great stress must be laid on forms and exact obedience, and that a holy heart could be no substitute for ceremonial disobedience. For, by these things the church was then preserved, and the Gospel preached. But, when all these ends, which gave to forms merely such importance, are answered, and a new dispensation is introduced, whose distinguishing feature is spirituality, as that of the Jewish church was formality; are we at liberty to suppose, that the entire, unbroken rigor of the Jewish system, in respect to forms, is transferred to the institutions of the Gospel? Nay, that the abolished forms of the Jewish theocracy are all concentrated, with all their exclusive, indispensable exactness, on some two or three rites and ceremonies of Christian institutions? While that whole dispensation of forms has waxed old and vanished away, and all the local and providential ends have ceased for which it was once reared up, and the importance of exactness in forms created; are we to suppose that the formal spirit of this entire dispensation is reduced to its quintessence, and poured into two or three rites of the Christian church? insomuch, that though all the ends of church organization are answered, in the preaching of the Gospel, the maintenance of God's worship, the conversion of sinners, the edification of believers, all is still vacated by some undesigned mistake in the organization of the church, the investiture of its ministry, or the administration of its rites? Our belief is, that, under the Christian dispensation, no exact form of public

worship, or of church organization, or of clerical investiture, or of the administration of ordinances, or of church government, has been instituted, with such explicitness, and exactness, and obligation, as invalidates the institutions or ordinances, if performed in any other than in that exact manner. There are, doubtless, general rules and principles, sufficient for all the purposes of church organization, which are to extend to all countries, and all climes, and to exist under all forms of government. But it does not correspond with the analogy of divine wisdom, or with the analogy of the Gospel, as preeminently a spiritual dispensation, that forms of uniform, indispensable exactness, should be imposed on all people, when the variety of the circumstances in which they are to operate, renders them easy in some cases, and a yoke of bondage in others; or that our Maker should, without any assignable reason but his mere will, lay such a stress on rites, which are only the means of spiritual good, as to refuse to acknowledge the churches regularly constituted so far as spiritual qualifications are concerned, merely on the ground of some unintended, undiscovered, ceremonial defect. In our judgment, the hour has long since come which Jesus predicted to the woman of Samaria, when all men who associate to worship God in spirit and in truth, and who in fact do worship him statedly in this manner, are, to all intents and purposes, churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, acknowledged as such by Jesus himself, and to be acknowledged as such by all churches of every name, who in like manner wor*ship God.

These remarks are made with entire good will and brotherly love towards Christians of those denominations, who, regard the ordination of our pastors, as vacating their authorised ministry, or the organization of our churches, by wrong administration of baptism, as vacating their existence and powers. We regard these things only as indications that the perfect day, the full light of the Gospel, has not come, which will come, and which, as we believe, is near; when the watchmen on the walls of Zion shall see eye to eye, and, at the table of the Lord, shall lift up the voice together, and sing praises to Him who hath raised them up, and caused them to sit together, in heavenly places in Christ.

But, while it is, in our judgment, a duty which churches, composed of persons affording credible evidence of piety, owe to each other, to maintain Christian fellowship in the ordinances of the New Testament; no one church has a right to require this of another, or to censure or condemn another church, which may not be able conscientiously to do what, to others, it may seem to be its duty to do. All Christians have a right to associate for the enjoyment of ordinances in that form, and on those conditions, which to them appear scriptural; and no one who cannot comply with these conditions has any cause to complain. If there were no other church