APPENDIX. IF any apology be necessary for devoting the subsequent pages of this volume to a subject that may seem foreign to the immediate design of the work, the author rests it solely upon its importance, at a périod when an indifference to principle seems to be gaining ground amongst us. If the cause of Protestant Dissenters be the cause of God, as I verily believe to be the case, then it is a cause worth contending for, and those who engage in it only in a half-hearted manner, may expect to be partakers with the Laodicean church, in the consequences of lukewarmness. The design of the following remarks is to excite a spirit of inquiry, and to awaken Dissenters to the study of their own principles. In treating upon that much abused and mistaken subject,— ecclesiastical history, I have been compelled to follow a different track to that pursued by most writers. If the reader should think I have dealt harshly with some characters, I desire him to follow me no farther than I am borne out by facts. Let him examine for himself, and try the devices of men by the sacred oracles of truth. CHAP. I. Concerning the true Nature of a Christian Church. THAT man is an intellectual being, endowed with the faculty of thinking, and a capacity to receive impressions of good or evil; that he possesses a natural liberty, rendering him the subject of moral government, and accountable to the great Author of being for the choice of his actions; and that the sacred scriptures present sufficient motives and directions for the regulation of his opinions and conduct, are propositions so clear and self-evident, that it is probable they will be disputed by none into whose hands the following pages may fall. Clear, however, as they may appear to the serious inquirer, yet, the history of the world ever since it became Christian, presents us with the melancholy spectacle of conscience led in chains by some haughty tyrant, usurping the chair of infallibility, and exacting a blind submission to his unhallowed dictates. This distinguishing feature of antichrist has shown itself in every period of the church, in every nation, and in every sect that has acquired any political preponderance. The history of many, as he stands connected with society, affords a profitable study both to the philosopher and to the Christian. In the sacred scriptures we have his portraiture drawn by the pen of wisdom. The different degrees of light and shade are there exhibited with striking effect: A model of virtuous obedience, and conformity to the divine image, here is proposed to us for imitation; or a slave to those hateful passions which render him an object of abhorrence, he is held up as a beacon to be avoided. Virtuous principles constitute the strongest safe-guards to civil society. In proportion as these are encouraged the state prospers, and the best interests of its members are promoted. Genuine virtue, however, rests upon the basis of |