_I maintain communion with the Church of England_, _not_ MERELY_ because
she is established by law_.
THIS, like the two former reasons, is a sufficient one to enforce my
continuance in communion with the Church of England, unless she be found,
after _due_ inquiry, to be contrary, in her constitution or doctrines, to
the word of God. For I am required to “submit myself to every ordinance
of man for the Lord’s sake.” Nothing can justify my departure from a
church so established, but the well-known decision in cases where the law
of God and the law of man are in opposition to each other. In any such
case the duty is clear to “obey God rather than man.”
Such an opposition may exist between human laws and the law of God; and
therefore “I maintain communion with the Church of England, not MERELY
because she is established by law.”