ed Episcopal Church in England and the
early Nonconformists; the Puritans did not spontaneously retire, they
were ejected by the hand of power because they refused to comply with
new ordinances imposed upon the Church of Christ by human authority. But
although the state of the question were conceded, the argument
completely fails. If this lesson against separation is justly deduced
from the parable, there must be in the natural object some parallel more
or less distinct which suggests and supports it. What is that parallel,
and where does it lie? Translate the spiritual lesson, which men profess
to find, back into the material facts, and observe the straits into
which your mistake has brought you. The parallel obviously must be,--The
good fishes that are enclosed within the net, or those that count
themselves good, should not leap out because star-fish and molluscs are
enclosed along with them. Either this is the parallel on which the
lesson leans, or it has no foundation at all; but there is no such thing
in nature, and no such representation in the parable. The fishes when
they are once enclosed within the net cannot break out; and even if they
could, they would break out not because they were confined in low
company, but because they were confined. The good would fain be free;
and the bad too. From first to last the net is to all its inmates and to
all alike a dreaded prison. I do not descry a solitary feature of
resemblance between the parable at this stage and the doctrine regarding
Church discipline which the expositors deduce from it.[27]

[27] While Stier and Trench seem to start with the same principle of
interpretation on this subject, they are led ultimately to opposite
practical results. Trench, as we have seen, gathers from the parable
that the pure, or those who consider themselves pure, are not
justified in leaping out of the net at their own pleasure; that is,
the Nonconformists should not go and constitute conventicles beyond
the pale of the Establishment. Stier, on the contrary, represents
the evil as endeavouring to break out of the net, but unable to
accomplish their purpose: "Many a leviathan is caught, and although
he would fain get out, yet cannot break the net."--_Stier_ in loc.

4. The sea, according to the interpreters, being the world, and the net
being the Church, I want to know what is meant by drawing the net to
land. To be drawn from the sea to the land must mean to be