in love, in holiness, in humility, in consolation, and thus render them meet for the fruition of eternal blessedness. In every thing they are to act not as lords over God's heritage, but as ensamples of the flock. As the design of the office is not only to edify believers, but also to convert impenitent sinners, and to bring them out of the world into the church, this is not to be done by temporal inducements, nor by force, but by the influence of divine truth on the heart; "for it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." All the ministers weapons are of a spiritual kind.

If any member of the church act contrary to the rules of the Gospel, after intreaties, warnings, and reproofs employed without effect, he is to be excommunicated, that is, separated from the church, and disowned as a member. By this exclusion, he is deprived of the peculiar privileges of a member of the society; but it takes away from him none of his wealth, or temporal advantages; and it robs him of none of his civil privileges.

All the affairs of the church are to be managed by spiritual men. None but Christians are qualified; and those only I call Christians who" deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Christ." Should I hear that a Yorkshire ploughman, who understands no language but his county brogue, was appointed professor of Arabic in the university of Cambridge, or that a blind man was chosen by the manufacturers of Leeds to judge of the goodness of the colour of their cloths, it would appear to me unspeakably less absurd, than for mere worldly men, destitute of the knowledge or of the spirit of the Gospel, to bear any office in the church of Christ, or possess any autho

rity in the management of its concerns. Whatever their outward stations and conditions in civil society may be, they are more unfit to have any influence, or exercise any power over its ministers and members, or to interfere in the regulation of its affairs.

These, gentlemen, are the principles on which my system rests. It will give me pleasure if you will weigh them with an attentive and a serious mind. I earnestly wish you to examine every part of the foundation on which I rear my structure of dissent, and to try if it be deficient in any quarter. If you please, we will meet again to-morrow. I will then proceed to state my objections to the church of England, and my reasons for being a dissenter from her communion.

SECTION II.

PARTICULAR REASONS OF DISSENT.

I AM happy, gentlemen, to see you again: I consider it as a proof that my reasoning has not given you offence. "We have reflected, sir, with some attention, on what you said to us yesterday; and we desire you to proceed to specify your particular reasons for being a dissenter from our church."

As I acknowledge no head of the church but Jesus Christ, I cannot accord with the church of England, which owns the king for her head. Indeed, when the matter is carefully examined, it will be found, that the king, in conjunction with the parliament, is her creator, preserver, reformer, and every thing: and that in him alone she lives, and moves, and has her being. The church of England, in nearly her present state, was brought into existence by the creative energy of the legislative authorities of England. The knights and burgesses in the commons house of parliament; the temporal peers, dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons in the house of lords; and queen Elizabeth, the sovereign of the land, brought the church of England into being, like Adam, full grown, with all her soul and body; but she had also her garments, her gifts, and her ornaments. They were mere laymen, and a laywoman, who were the authors of her existence. As for the spiritual peers, they refused to concur, and absented

themselves on the occasion, having an earnest desire for the establishment of popery.

As the civil government is the creator, so is it likewise the preserver of the church of England. No one dare touch a hair of her, or fashion it in a different way without its authority and permission. If any alteration takes place, it is not by the power of the clergy, but by the power of the parliament and the king. If a single occasional and temporary collect be wanted on a fast or thanksgiving-day, for the use of the parish priests, the college of archbishops and bishops have not a right to make it without an order from the king. The impotence of both houses of convocation, when formerly allowed to meet, and to act, was such that they could not even censure with effect the erroneous opinions of a member of their own body. A woman, who then sat on the throne, was of a different opinion from all

1

b A small book, entitled, "The Touchstone of the new Religion, &c. or sixty Assertions of Protestants tried by their own rule of Scripture alone, and condemned by clear and express texts of their own Bible: to which is added, a Roman Catholic's Reasons why he cannot conform to the Protestant Religion. London, printed in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five,” and purchased in Ireland in the year one thousand eight hundred and seven, where it is no doubt extensively circulated among the Roman Catholics, assigns this as an eighth reason why they cannot conform to the protestant religion: "because protestancy was settled upon its present bottom in this kingdom by act of parliament, in the first year of queen Elizabeth, in opposition to all the bishops, to the whole convocation of the clergy, and to both the universities; that is, in one word, in opposition to the whole body of the clergy of the kingdom; as may be seen in Dr. Fuller, book vi. &c. and Heylin, page 285-6. How then can it be called the church of England, or any other church at all, seeing it was introduced and established only by the authority of mere laymen, in opposition to the church," page 49.

the clergy of the land, and her opinion prevailed. They thought Whiston a heretic: good queen Anne, of blessed memory, was of a different judgment; and Whiston remained unrebuked.-Pray gentlemen do not frown.

The alteration of any thing which may be considered as a standing rule, requires still more of the civil authority: there must be the concurrence of the lords and commons, as well as the approbatiou of the king or queen. Various alterations have been made of late in the frame of the church, respecting the residence of the clergy, the power of the bishops, and the appointment of curates. But by whom have they been made? By the clergy in convocation? No such thing: but by his majesty, and the lords and commons in parliament assembled. By them all is done. They are the sole reformers; and without their permission and authority the clergy cannot wear a garment of a different shape or colour in their ministrations. So truly indeed is the civil authority the head of the church, that her thousands of clergy, dignified and subordinate, cannot alter a single question in the catechism, nor wear a blue surplice instead of a white one, were they so inclined. Here then is a parliamentary church as to its origin, a church wholly made by laymen, and alterable by laymen according to their sovereign's pleasure. It has been attempted to represent the church as the ally of the state; but it is not so. The state is the head; the church but one of the inferior members. The church of England is the creature of the state as much as the army, the navy, the courts of justice, or the Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. II. p. 571, 2, 3.