ΤΟ

THE REVEREND THE

CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF LONDON,

THIS

DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED TO THEM, AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,

IS DEDICATED,

BY THEIR FAITHFUL SERVANT,

J. H. POTT.

Α

CHARGE;

&c.

MY REV. BRETHREN,

WE are fallen upon times when many, who dissent from us and hold separate communions, have pressed their separation to a greater length than others did, who, after days of trouble and confusion, professed a wish for union, if it might be had upon their terms. There are many now by whom no terms are put forward, whose cry is that of unqualified hostility.

We have found indeed some welcome and no less generous exceptions on the part of others, who, though still dissenting from us, hold a different language. But from very many, the call is for an absolute surrender of the bond of discipline in our Church, as protected by the constitution of the realm, and maintained in our national establishment.

Under circumstances then of clamour and assault, it is time at least to defend our own cause against objections only rendered new by new exaggerations in the mouths of new opponents. I trust that this defence may be made without, for a moment, losing sight either of the good will of more generous adversaries, or of a true desire for union upon common terms, though not with concession or neglect of what can admit no compromise. Happily the point to which my views will be directed chiefly, and to which I shall call your notice, was not thrown out in times past, when terms of union were proposed, upon the rescue of the land from distraction and disorder, and upon the restoration of the government.

I shall not then forfeit my own claim to consistency, when I purpose to defend what is essential to the integrity of discipline amongst us, although cherishing, as I shall never cease to do, a cordial wish for union, together with that good will which must lead to it where it can be had, and follow from it where it is obtained.

If I shall seem, then, to strengthen old impediments by not yielding what was never yet conceded, but belongs to the collective suffrage of the Christian Church, it is in order that some ground may be left for us in matters of that nature from Scripture and antiquity, upon which the foot may rest. Thus far, and no farther, might be said by

the Sovereign Lord of all things when he put limits to the restless tides of seas and floods which He only could control; and there are waves as blind as those of seas and floods, against which the mounds should be kept, and the limits carefully preserved.

I will add but one more preliminary observation. It is no new thing for men to prosecute their own opinions; but it is a very unfair and preposterous thing to attempt to force a change of any sort not only upon partial reasons and unproved assumptions, but against the public voice expressed in the laws and provisions of the country, and in opposition to the major part of the community. This was in fact the case in the past age to which I have alluded, when the arm of force prevailed to the subversion of the constituted government in Church and State. When things were restored to order and tranquillity, it soon appeared to what part the greater number were attached. As something, however, of that kind of violence which spurns all limits, never fails to make its efforts where reformation is desired and intended by more considerate men; and as in such cases, things are often urged far beyond all salutary measures of improvement, it becomes our duty, whatever may be wished and should be yielded for peace sake, to look well to the ground on which we stand. Though we cannot even for peace sake, say with