a parish are considered as Christians. Every person in the parish, whatever his character may be, swearer, drunkard, sabbath-breaker, adulterer, or infidel, if he choose, has his children christened; and when he thinks proper, comes and kneels at the altar, and receives from the hands of the parish priest the consecrated bread and wine in the sacrament. Is not this the case generally through every county in England? But what resemblance does this bear to the communion of the faithful according to primitive usage in the peculiar ordinances of the Gospel? Does it represent the union of believers in faith and love, and their obligations and endeavours to put away from among them every wicked person? The likeness is not greater than between the frosty darkness of a winter midnight, and the radiant splendor of a summer's noon.

Excommunication, it may be said, which is a part. of godly discipline, is an ordinance of the church of England. So far good. But let it be examined and seen when, how often, and on what accounts, and in what manner it is pronounced. It should be exercised in every parish, "The clergyman, sir, pro

nounces it when there is occasion." But has he authority to form a process and decree, or is he merely the instrument of pronouncing it? There is a chancellor's court, composed chiefly, and sometimes wholly of laymen, a tedious and expensive court, in which the cause is investigated, and the sentence decreed. But how seldom is this part of godly discipline known, though wickedness every where abounds. Unless in instances where causes not Christian induce the process, it is seldom heard of. Nor should it be matter of regret that this is the

case for when the sentence is pronounced on a man, he is immediately stripped of his privileges as a citizen. How naturally does this remind us of a state of things mentioned in Revelation xiii. 16, 17, wherein no man was permitted to buy and sell, but such as had a mark which I shall not name. Because a man is a notorious sinner, must he therefore be deprived of his civil rights? Must he be prevented from sueing for his property, or appearing as an evidence in a court of justice? Nay, if the excommunicated person do not, in forty days, profess repentance, the king's writ sends him to prison, where he is to continue till he makes a satisfaction for his offence by penance and humble submission. In such a mode of procedure there is something so truly antichristian, and so replete with the savage persecuting spirit of popery, that I am filled with indignation at the sight.-Church of England, mother of children, are these thy doings? "It is from pure love to my children that I treat them thus." Thy voice is indeed the voice of Jacob, but thy hands are the hands of Esau. Fare thee well.

If you have patience, gentlemen, to hear me procced, there are several things relative to the entrance of the clergy into their office, to which I am compelled to object, and which appear in my eyes not agreeable to the purity and simplicity of the Gospel.

Of ordination by piece-meal I disapprove, as utterly destitute of foundation in the sacred Scripture. From the perusal of this book, without any regard to previous system in the mind, it will appear that whatever ordination may be, when it takes place, the

person is introduced to the whole ministry of the Gospel, and all the functions which it includes, without exception. But in the church of England there is a tripartite division of powers: and thrice must the bishop's hands be laid on the head of the candidate, before it receives all the virtue which they contain and impart. The first imposition makes him a deacon; and the holiest hand can do no more. By this he is qualified "to assist the priest when he ministreth the holy communion, and to help him in the distribution thereof; and to read holy Scriptures and homilies in the church; and to instruct the youth in the catechism; in the absence of the priest, to baptize infants, and to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the bishop ;" and he is to attend to the state of the poor. More than these, the deacon cannot do without a second touch. But tell me, for I long to know, why a larger measure of ecclesiastical existence is necessary to dispense the ordinance of the Lord's supper than the ordinance of baptism? But after a deacon is transmuted into a priest, a certain portion of virtue still remains in the ordainer and it is not till the third touch of the episcopal hands that the whole of the virtue is conveyed; and then having drained them dry, all priestly power is conferred, and the person being now a bishop has attained the full stature of a perfect ecclesiastical man: and besides the performance of all the functions, for which he had received authority by his previous ordinations, he has acquired' ability to confirm the youth, and to ordain deacons and priests. Though it may be painful to you to hear it, I must say that I think the practice of the church in these things savours more of Romish

ceremony, and the assumption of mystic spiritual power, than of the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. The mode of ordination among the dissenters I unspeakably prefer, as more agreeable to the spirit of the New Testament, and remote from all approaches to superstition and unfounded claims of ecclesiastical dominion.

But this is not all the fault I find with your ordination service. There is something in the "form for ordering priests," to which I have stronger objections than it is possible for me to find words to express. It has left such an impression, that whenever it occurs to my thoughts, I am pained and hurt. Whether any thing be owing to circumstances, you shall judge from my relation. Conversing with a neighbour, a very worthy man, on the subject of ordination, he asked if I had ever seen the rite practised in the church of England, I acknowledged that I was never present at the service, nor much acquainted with the subject. "There is (says he) to be an ordination of priests to-morrow at

by the archbishop of Canterbury-will you go with me, and judge of the solemn service for yourself." I agreed to go. The same evening one of my family was taken ill, and I was obliged to be up all night. Next morning, when my neighbour called, I told him that I was afraid I should fall asleep at the church, which I exceedingly disliked, and begged to be excused. He urged me to go, and said he would keep me awake. I went, and in the course of the service I fell into a slumber: when half awakened out of it, the following words struck my ears : "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest.-Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are

forgiven and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained." My mind in that state attending only to the words of Scripture, I thought "it is Christ that is speaking-he is giving the commission to his apostles, for he never uttered such words to any other men." But I instantly recollected "that is long since past." I then said to myself, " it must be Antichrist, the man of sin, who sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God; for what man can communicate to another the power to forgive sins." By this time I was roused, and looked around me, and saw my neighbour by my side, and the archbishop with his hand upon the head of the young man whom he was ordaining priest. He repeated the same words to a second, a third, and a fourth. Each time I felt peculiarly painful sensations which I cannot express. For days afterwards I could think of nothing else, and was full of astonishment that such expressions should ever find admission into the forms of the English church; or if in the dawn of the reformation they obtained admission, that they should be retained, and preserve their place to the present day.

Were I permitted to address myself to the bishops and archbishops of the church of England, I would say, "reverend and right reverend fathers in God, do ye believe that ye have power to communicate the Holy Ghost by the laying on of your hands; and also authority to retain and to remit sins? If you do, shew me, I meekly beseech your lordships, your commission from Jesus Christ; for I have not been able to find it in the word of God. If ye do not, why do you make use of words so much calculated to mislead, and to deceive, and which will do un