e Church appears
to me to be of enormous weight,--nor have I ever heard any rational
plea alleged against Episcopacy, except that, like other things, it is
capable of abuse, and has sometimes been abused; and as, altogether
clearly and indisputably, there is described in the Bible an episcopal
office, distinct from the merely ministerial one; and, apparently, also
an episcopal officer attached to each church, and distinguished in the
Revelation as an Angel, I hold the resistance of the Scotch Presbyterian
Church to Episcopacy to be unscriptural, futile, and schismatic.]

[Footnote 149: "By just judgment be deposed," Art. 26.]

[Footnote 150: The difference between the authority of doctrine and
discipline is beautifully marked in 2 Timothy ii. 25, and Titus ii.
12-15. In the first passage, the servant of God, teaching divine
doctrine, must not strive, but must "in _meekness_ instruct those that
oppose themselves;" in the second passage, teaching us "that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts he _is to live soberly, righteously, and
godly_ in this _present world_," the minister is to speak, exhort, and
rebuke with ALL AUTHORITY--both functions being expressed as united in 2
Timothy iv. 3.]

[Footnote 151: Observe, this and the following conclusions depend
entirely on the supposition that the Government is part of the Body of
the Church, and that some pains have been taken to compose it of
religious and wise men. If we choose, knowingly and deliberately, to
compose our Parliament, in great part, of infidels and Papists, gamblers
and debtors, we may well regret its power over the Clerical officer; but
that we should, at any time, so compose our Parliament, is a sign that
the Clergy themselves have failed in their duty, and the Church in its
watchfulness;--thus the evil accumulates in reaction. Whatever I say of
the responsibility or authority of Government, is therefore to be
understood only as sequent on what I have said previously of the
necessity of closely circumscribing the Church, and then composing the
Civil Government out of the circumscribed Body. Thus, all Papists would
at once be rendered incapable of share in it being subjected to the
second or most severe degree of excommunication--first, as idolaters, by
1 Cor. v. 10; then as covetous and extortioners (selling absolution,) by
the same text; and, finally, as heretics and maintainers of falsehoods,
by Titus iii. 10, and 1 Tim. iv. 1.

I do not write this has