which, judgement on the case is brought to a speedy issue.

When a writer builds on a false foundation, it is not necessary to waste time in pulling down his superstructure, stone by stone; the shortest method will be to draw away the foundation; in which case the building, be it carried ever so high, becomes at once an heap of rubbish on the ground.

The point which Professor Campbell has most laboured to establish, and which constitutes the foundation on which, in common with other Advocates in the same cause, he has erected his superstructure. of Presbyterian Parity, is, that one Bishop was invariably considered, in the most ancient usage, as having only one Church, or Congregation of Christian people: from whence says the Professor," it is manifest that his inspection at first was only over one Parish.” Page 206. The word ɛnnayoia, Church, in the opinion of the Professor, having "but two original senses in the New Testament; the one denoting only a single congregation of Christians: the other the whole Christian Community."

When

66

When therefore we find nothing in the expression, or in the scope of the passage to determine us to limit the Church to any particular district, as when Christ says, on this rock will I build my Church;' we are to understand of course not any particular Church, but the Catholic Church wheresoever dispersed: but when on the contrary we read of the Church of God at Corinth, or in any other given place, we are then to understand only one single congregation of assembled Christians.

The latter of these two positions is the only one with which we are at present concerned. And as the Professor appears to write on this subject, as if he thought himself standing on high ground, from whence he might look down with contempt on all who dissented from him; I shall proceed to examine this position with some degree of attention. And though I shall not address to Dr. Campbell that coarse and illiberal language which he has thought proper to apply to the learned Dodwell, where he calls his positions on the subject of Episcopacy "extravagancies, more like the ravings of a disordered brain, than the

sober

sober deductions of a mind capable of reflection;" P. 188—-yet I shall not hesitate to say, with the view of guarding my younger Brethren against the prevalence of the present latitudinarian principles; that the independent notions contained in Dr. Campbell's late publication, are those which have already been productive of infinite mischief to the cause of Christianity; and if not timely counteracted, bid fair to terminate in its total destruction. And if Dr. Campbell, with all his acknowledged abilities, had not been a blind worshipper of his favorite idol, Presbyterianism, he could not have acquiesced in a system of Church government, "to which all the sources of evidence hitherto known in theological controversy, reason, Scripture, and tradition, (if fairly produced) are equally repugnant."

But before I proceed to the examination of particulars, it may be observed that the fundamental position on which the Professor's argument against Episcopacy is built, namely, that a primitive Bishop was a Minister only of a single parish; the proofs of which are now attempted to be drawn from the state of the Church in the first

ages;

ages; was never heard of till many years after the separation from the Church of Rome had taken place. Had those foreign Reformers, who, when they separated from the Roman Church, unfortunately neglected to take the steps necessary to retain Episcopacy among them, entertained any such idea on the subject, they certainly would not have kept it out of sight; much less would they have spoken decidedly in favor of the Episcopacy of the Church of England, and condemned unequivocally as they did all separations from it. The words of Beza on this occasion are remarkably strong *. "If there are any, (says he) which you can hardly make me believe, who reject the whole order of Bishops, God forbid that any man in his sound reason should consent to their madness." And speaking of the Hierarchy of

* Si qui sunt autem (quod sane mihi non facile persuaseris) qui omnem Episcoporum ordinem rejiciunt, absit ut quisquam satis sanæ mentis furoribus illorum assentiatur."

“Fruatur sane istâ singulari Dei beneficentiâ, quæ utinam sit illi perpetua."-Beza ad Tract. de Minist. Ev. Grad. Belge Edit. C. 1 et 18.

the

*" Let

the Church of England, he says, her enjoy that singular blessing of God, which I wish she may ever retain." And Calvin, if he is to be judged by his writings, must have thought the cause in which Dr. Campbell has engaged, more worthy of an anathema than of vindication. "If (says he, speaking in opposition to the Popish Hierarchy) they would give us an Hierarchy in which the Bishops were so eminent, as that they would not refuse to be subject to Christ, and depend on him as their only head, and be referred to him; -then I confess them worthy of all anathemas, if there shall be any such, that would not reverence such an Hierarchy, and submit to it with the utmost obedience." Such an Hierarchy Calvin acknowledged that of the Church of England to be.

In fact, the Reformation, in the original,

*«Talem si nobis Hierarchiam exhibeant, in quâ sic emineant Episcopi, ut Christo subesse non recusent, et ab illo tanquam unico capite pendeant, et ad ipsum referantur ;-tum vero nullo non anathemate dignos fàtear, si qui erunt qui non eam revereantur, summâque obedientiâ observent."-De Necess. Eccl. Refor.

and