turbers of the peace of the Church will always be found within her communion: and it would be strange if the Church of Scotland should escape. These gentlemen certainly do not agree with the excellent Bishop Home, who thought so well of the Church of Scotland and her primitive Episcopacy, that he expressed it as his opinion, that were the great Apostle of the Gentiles on Earth, he would probably unite himself to the Scottish Episcopalians, in preference to any other body, and "as most like to the people he had been used to."[1] To me it appears very evident, that the persons, whether in Scotland or in England, who are against a union with the Scottish Church, are either profoundly ignorant of the principles of Episcopacy, or in reality hostile to Episcopal government in the Church. Supposing the latter alternative to be correct, it would be far more consistent to unite with the Presbyterian Establishment in Scotland.
It is utterly impossible for a man, who really maintains the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, to act as those gentlemen have done who have withdrawn from their allegiance to the Scottish Bishops. They are quite as much seceders from the Church of England, as if they had set up separate congregations in this country. The pretence of being subject to English Bishops is paltry and evasive, because no English Prelate can exercise any jurisdiction in Scotland, while no man can be an Episcopalian, whatever may be his profession, who is not subject in his ministrations to some Bishop. "No maxim," says Bishop Sandford, "is more undisputed among Episcopalians, than this, that without connex-
- ↑ Jones's Life of Bishop Home, p. 151.
