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THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

CO-OPERATION OR INCORPORATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR.

SIR,-Unity of spirit, it seems, is not sufficient; we must chieve an ostensible union. The time has gone by in which to e satisfied with the measure of common action attainable by riendly co-operation. We must constitute an ecclesia which shall ontain us all. Recognised though it be that we are moved by the ame spirit, yet, as we are taunted by the Establishmentarians, who ossess little unity but that of form, with our diverse administraions, it is desirable that we should appear to crop off our peculirities; and, however much they may still continue to exist, resent no show of them to the world. Unity of spirit, unity of urpose, "friendly co-operation" is good, but "incorporating union higher and better."

Query If there be ought revealed to us in the word of God, ad rendered incontestible by the history of human progress, it is at our knowledge of the Divine Will, as well as our acquaintance ith our own duty, is to be attained by the successive teachings of is Spirit. Alike in the history of the individual and the race, owledge is secured by advances from truth to truth, and from the wer to the higher appreciation of the same truth. We know as e "follow on to know the Lord." There has been no time, and, dging from the past, there is no reason to suppose that there ever ill be a time, when the intelligent observer, either of his own perience or of the experience of his age, will not say with obinson, in his address to the Pilgrim Fathers-"I am very peraded, I am very confident, the Lord hath more truth yet to break it of His holy word." But, if this be so, whether is it more kely that we shall seek and obtain further light as a single ligious body, or as several distinct denominations? Whether is le spirit of enquiry likely to be most influential, and the habit 1ost cultivated, amongst us if we continue upon a basis of comromise, or upon a basis of antagonism? Whether will the truth

We are very glad to give insertion to this able comment on the first paper a the "Customs of the Dissenters." It is comforting to find that we have ot properly estimated our own blessings in the fragmentary character of British onconformity. This correspondent has, however, somewhat over-rated our ndencies to Presbyterianism. All that has been said in favour of larger unions consistent with an earnest retention of Independency, and we think comatible with freedom of thought and action. The next article may serve as a ractical reply to any extravagant glorification of Congregationalism.

stand the best chance amongst the necessities of more or less contending parties, the separate interests of which depend upon the measure in which they can maintain their opinions against al others, or of one great party, which is the more likely to continue its authority and prestige the less those who compose it discover any new truth, or are prepared to act upon their individual per ception of it? Surely, in this particular, there can be no com parison between the advantages of co-operation and incorporation The difference between the mental activities and tendencies to enquiry of large and small bodies, all other things being equal, is all but proverbial; and hence, in all human probability, to amal gamate the several Evangelical bodies into one grand demonstrativ union, would, whatever other advantages it might secure, place th truth itself at such a disadvantage, that it would be an event, nc to rejoice over, but very greatly to deplore.

But not only is it probable that there is a greater tendenc amongst us, under existing circumstances, to prosecute inquir with regard to religious truth, than there would be in a vast it corporation, but that existing arrangements permit such inquir with less restraint upon our personal liberty. Notwithstanding th general admission that "truth is the daughter of time," there al few men who are prepared to admit it without some reservation Further light may be cast upon some things, but, with man Presbyterians Presbyterianism is beyond all question. The Chure may come to modified notions of Church polity, but with man Baptists, the subject of baptism is incapable of further illumination The same with the Independent: there is something incapable further light-there is something which never can be proved to b other than as he apprehends it. The consequence is inevitable. I all religious bodies there is some part of their doctrine, or polity or mode of worship, which is inviolable, and the questioning which is little better than atheism or irreligion. But the genera principle of the progressive nature of revelation remains, notwith standing these several attempts at limitation, and applies to ead of the matters with regard to which we would assume or asser something in the nature of exception. And by one denominatio acting as a counterpoise to the other, and correcting, by its owl assumption of infallibility upon some point, a similar assumption in another, and thus neutralising the general evil tendency, we are able to make some progress towards the ultimate truth. But how would the truth fare when, not only the individual appetite and aptitude for its discovery was awakened by incorporation, but when, by the same process, we had removed the checks upon the assump tion of finality which arise out of the conflicting assertions of the doctrine? If, under several petty tyrranies some of us are whipped within an inch of our lives for breaking through old customs, and

eking to teach God's will other than in the language of our forethers, what would become of us when the force of custom was ncentrated and addressed to us by the mouth of an immense and le incorporation? Verily instead of "whips" we should feel e bite of "scorpions ;" and we should go back to the time when edom of thought was possible, but freedom of speech hardly to › allowed.

Again, not only is it probable that the spirit of inquiry is better ltivated, and more liberty allowed for its exercise under existing rangements, than would be the case by the proposed amalgaman, but the several discussions themselves which exist between e religious body and another must have a result directly fortunate the truth. No one interested in the advocacy of any principle, tal to correct views, either of religion or politics, need be informed at the most direct antagonism is more favourable to its reception an a spirit of indifference; and that that which is not possible ader circumstances of listless acquiescence in any doctrine, shall come so upon the firm determination of its opponents to resist progress. Admitted that the benefit is not in the oppositionopposition brings into conflict the advocates of that which is e and that which is false; and when the arguments for the truth d the arguments for an error are fairly stated, and the spirit of uiry is aroused, before long the truth will prove the victor. te as in the days of Knight Errantry, the Knight most worthy in pearance, and who, without the tournament would be considered better champion, but for the necessity to vindicate his work, is iged to submit to a less pretentious but worthier man; so, often discussion of antagonistic principles is the sole way to come at ir respective value, and the way falsely to estimate is to refuse opportunity for contest. Left to their ostensible merits, the e would often gain an easier credence than the true the meriious a more ready acceptance than the real; and it is only by wing them to come into competition, as Providence evidently ended that they should, that we can ascertain their real value. t much, if not the whole, of this must be lost in an incorporation the various sections of the Christian Church. Incorporation only be achieved by acquiescence in a large number of things which we do not believe, and silence upon many questions in ich, under other circumstances, we should be prepared to differ. d, therefore, the consequence must be that many of those oneous opinions which now have some chance of rectification, uld be allowed to go unquestioned, and the evils they produce be rpetuated amongst us.

Further, there are two modes of obtaining a knowledge of that ich is true; that which comes from an abstract argument, espective of experience, and that which comes by arguing from

the "test of experience" as to that which must, in the nature of the case, be right; and, within the domain of both religion and politics, it is questionable whether the larger proportion of our knowledge, and that upon which we can best rely, has not been obtained by the latter rather than the former process. It is cer tainly that by means of which we have arrived at our knowledge of civil polity, and learned how to appreciate and obtain ou political liberties. Unless we had experienced the evil of a Kingh imposition of taxes, without the consent of Parliament, we shoul never have arrived, by abstract argument, at a correct notion of th practical value of the limitation in regard to this matter which have now provided for in our Constitution. Unless the secon Charles had presented us with an extreme illustration of the cof sequences of the right to grant a "declaration of indulgence," is probable that the bounds which his Parliament set to the exerci of the right, would have continued to exist to a much later da than was afterwards possible. The same with almost every politic liberty we possess; we have arrived at it, not by a priori argumen but by "the logic of events." Nor is this less true, though pe haps, less obviously so, in our religious belief and religious liberti When Luther began his opposition to Tetzel and his indulgenc he probably had not the remotest idea that he would end in den ing the Popish claims altogether. When the Nonconformists 1662 left the pulpits of the Establishment, they never surmise perhaps, that their act would ultimate in a denial of the magistrate authority in every religious dispute whatever; but, as the germ the denial was in their act, it needed but the act to teach principle. The same with other religious truths; individual co viction of duty has impelled, and the discovery of a principle b followed; and hence, to the force of individual conviction we a largely indebted for the knowledge of the truth which we posses But if a large proportion of the knowledge we have obtained h come to us by individuals acting out their own personal convi tions, is it wise to ask them to combine upon a basis which mu necessitate them to keep many of their convictions in abeyance If we have gained so much by personal force and individual a prehension of duty, is it desirable to reduce that force to the lowe ebb for the sake of a merely external union? Rather is it not the force upon which we should rely, and which, we should both mo thoroughly cultivate ourselves, and enjoin upon others?

But true religion is not merely an acquaintance with religiou truth, but is real and of value in proportion as it leads us to at upon an individual sense of duty. There is something beyon either the mental or moral appreciation of the will of God. Ther is the submission of the heart, and the life, to that which we believ to be His will. Consequently, whatever shall lead us, unconcerned

out consequences, and unmindful of our own comfort, or the mfort and convenience of our friends, to attempt to do and teach is will, is a real moral force in the regeneration of the world; and hatever shall diminish or misdirect this force, must be an evil. an will be true to themselves, and true to their God, in proportion they have few reservations, and make few compromises of any t: not in proportion as their sense of advantage even to God's se leads them here to a concealment, and there to an apparent ial of their convictions. We are more likely, too, to make a stake as to what, upon the whole, will be most conducive to the gress of religion, by arguing from what, to us, appears to be best, n by arguing from what must be best, from what we personally , independently of all such considerations, to be right. Nay, uestion whether the chief moral-or, rather, immoral causesn which we are now suffering, are not the immediate result of compromises which are necessary to existing incorporations; I that what at present is needed is, not so much charity as truth, so much incorporation as a more individual and outspoken viction. The religious world, already, is full of shams and tences, that, to a purely honest man, must be deeply painful. desire for an apparent unity, even now, pushes us frequently to verge, and, sometimes, it is feared, beyond the verge, of common esty and truth. Which alternative must exert the most prejudiinfluence over the unbeliever-the individual oneness between an's convictions and the external manifestation of them, which prevent his union with even any existing body of Christians, le want of coincidence between the inward faith and outward ession of a man, which may enable him to coalesce with all? ch, again, is the most effective moral force, the humblest enting denomination, the members of which know no mental rvation other than the plain grammatical sense of the language ch they use, or the religious body which is large, because many 8 ministers, to secure that advantage, are prepared to forswear aselves, and, to speak the whole truth, "to do evil that good come?" Surely, we must shut our eyes to the consequences of e incorporations based upon compromises, when we wish the her amalgamation of religious bodies. There is a strong teny towards evil in most compromises. But, in religious matters, is especially the case, because it is the region of conviction; no end can reasonably be supposed to be desirable, to secure h it may be necessary to conceal or subordinate any truth I which God may favor us.

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For must we forget the necessities of spiritual progress. Death ecessary to life. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much t." The measure of light which is best fitted for one generation

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