may satisfy every unprejudiced header. that the advocates of "lepotical succession " would be better pleased if the Story of ana·rias had not been recorded, as they know not hour to grapple with it.

*

What will English Episcopalians say this supposed alliance? – for they deny the name of Church to the established Religion of Scotland. A gemine Church of Englandish

d

canner allow that Scotland has a Church... How then came it to be so style By the English Parliament in the ach for the Union of the J.W.)

Kingdones?

did not know it to be the fact,-a doctrine more monstrous than ever was promulgated by the Church of Rome, in the very zenith of her political glory. This is making Christ do homage to Cæsar indeed,-making religion a mere political machine, and a sort of useful decoy to the State.

The very argument itself is a

silent admission of the unsoundness of that Church

which adopts it. It is surrendering at once its scriptural character, for the sake of maintaining its political utility. This is that contrivance, namely, political expediency, which has been made use of, to cement the Churches of England and Scotland together, contrary to the avowed principles of Presbyterian equality, which had hitherto prevailed in the latter. Yes, there is another bond of union betwixt them; and that bond is the blood of the saints,-a blood more indelible than that fabled spot in their Holyrood House. For, by making herself part and parcel of the Establishment of the land, the Church of Scotland has made herself "particeps criminis,"-a partaker of her sister's sins; she has adopted her crimes along with her secular character, and has made herself guilty of that very blood, which was shed even in Scotland itself; and, having made herself a party to her sister's sins, she shall assuredly share in her punishment.

The natural tendency of all Establishments is, to accumulate property, and to generate Patronage in the Church; and Patronage, as naturally, excites the cupidity of those in power to usurp the rights of the people in that most important of all particulars,-the

How

choice of their pastors. This is, in truth, the worst usurpation of all. Nomination boroughs, as a public abuse, are not to be compared to this; for members of Parliament have but the care of our temporal interests after all, unless they too usurp on their office, and pretend to take charge of our souls; but ministers of the Gospel profess the cure of souls,-and who so fit to nominate these trustees for the soul, if such they must be considered, as those whose souls are at hazard? stands this matter, however, in point of fact? Let us look around us a little, and see. Take the Church of Scotland, for instance, one of the purest, perhaps, of these Established Churches, both in doctrine and discipline. Out of little more than 1000 livings, about 600 are in the hands of the nobility and gentry; 300 in the gift of the Crown; and the remainder at the disposal of public bodies and universities, with the small exception of about fifty-seven, less than the odd number above 1000, and a mere fraction of the whole, which belong to the people; that is to say, where the minister is nominated, as he ought to be in all cases, by the congregation at large. Is this a state of things, I would ask, which can subsist long; or is not rather such an one as ought to have been abolished long ago?

It were a thing, indeed, much to be desired,—“ a consummation most devoutly to be wished,”—that there should be a speedy end to all religious Establishments whatsoever; for I am afraid that persecution and oppression will never entirely cease from the earth, while Establishments subsist. So many persons'

interests are involved in them, and they are so exceedingly jealous of any encroachments upon these interests, that they will always take undue means to prevent it. Nor should we suffer any loss, I conceive, in point of religious instruction, if such were the case; for if the Established clergy were indeed all Doctors of Divinity, that is, teachers of the truth, it might perhaps be so ; but when it is notorious, that the greater part of these are propagators of error, and of false doctrine, in one form or other, it marvellously alters the case; and the conclusion is, that we should rather gain than lose, in point of real religious information, by the extinction of such false lights. "Take away," says Chillingworth, "these walls of separation, and all will quickly be one. Take away this persecuting, burning, cursing, damning of men, for not subscribing to the words of men as the words of God. Require of Christians only to believe Christ, and to call no man master but Him only. Let * those leave claiming infallibility, that have no title to it; and let them that in their words disclaim it, disclaim it likewise in their actions. In a word, take away tyranny, which is the devil's instrument to support errors, and superstitions, and impieties, in the several parts of the world, which could not otherwise long withstand the power of truth,-I say, take away tyranny, and restore Christians to their just and full liberty of captivating their understanding to Scripture only; and as rivers, when they have a free passage, run all to the ocean, so it may well be hoped, by God's blessing, that This is claimed (though not openly) by the English. Hierarchy me Convocation assembled: for, without in it, the joust Paragraph of the 20th Church article wr

universal liberty, thus moderated, will quickly reduce Christendom to truth and unity."

The religion of Jesus was never established by law; no, not even in the time of Constantine himself; and, even if it were possible, that it should be so established, it would cease from that very moment to be the religion of Christ any longer. The Lord's people, as I said before, are a free and voluntary people; and when they cease to be free, they cease to be His-for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Christ and compulsion can never consist-Christ and Cæsar can never sit together on the same throne—for as the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, so neither is Cæsar's of the next. "By authority," says Bishop Hoadley, "the Jews and Heathens combated the truth of the Gospel; and when Christians increased into a majority, and came to think the same method to be the only proper one for the advantage of their cause, which had been the enemy and destroyer of it, then it was the authority of Christians, which by degrees not only laid waste the honour of Christianity, but well nigh extinguished it amongst men. It was authority, which would have prevented all reformation, where it is, and which has put a barrier against it where it is not. How, indeed, can it be expected, that the same thing, which has, in all ages, and in all countries, been hurtful to truth, and true religion, amongst men, should, in any age, or in any country, become a friend and

guardian of them? It was authority," he adds, "which would put forth an unfounded Claime. To suppose "Authority in Controversies of Faith" to be vinted. in Fallible persons, involves an absurdity.