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countries, and among almost all denominations, has enabled the reverend few to lord it over the consciences, and pick the pockets of the cheated many; often adding insult to injury in the bargain. Let. not therefore, the inhabitants of Christendom point the finger of scorn at the Asiatics, for worshipping their Grand Lama, their Mahomet, and their Bramins, and for suffering themselves to be so foolishly cheated out of their liberty, reason, and common sense ; for most assuredly, the last are only in magnitude what the first are in miniature. We will now humbly take the liberty to close this department, with the lengthy quotation we promised to introduce, and which will show more clearly than I can possibly do, the present power of dignified prelates, and prostituted parsons; and that the privileges they usurp, is a flagrant infringment on the rights of God. .“ Indeed, the religion of Jesus Christ adits of no civil establishment at all. It is inconsistent with the very nature of it, and it was never designed to be incorporated with any secular institution whatever.* It made its way at first, not only without human aid, but even in opposition to all laws, both civil and religious, which then prevailed in the Roman empire. This was the state of it for upwards of 300 years. It seems too, to be the intention of Divine Providence, to reduce it again to the same simple and unconnected state. America hath set the example. France, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland are going the same. way. And it is highly probable, all the other states in Europe will, in due time, follow the same steps.' As things now are in this country, the religion of Jesus Christ, which was not only not to be of this world* but in direct opposition to it,t is certainly a temporal, worldly, civil institution. At least, it is a strange mixture of things sécular and religious:f nearly as much so, as it is in the catholic countries.

* The immense empire of China, which contains 333 millions of inhabitants, has no established reli. gion. And the gospel of Jesus Christ will never have its full and proper effect upon mankind, until it is completely disentangled from every human institution. Leave it to itself; let it have fair play; clog it not with civil pains and penalties; let it stand or fall by its own intrinsic worth; let neither kings nor bishops lay their officious hands upon it; and then see how it will make its way among men. The greatest possi. ble motive, by which man can be animated, is the salvation of his own soul. If this will not move us, nothing else will be of any avail.

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John xviii. 36, 37, where Christ claims the kingdom,

| Compare Mat. v. 3--12, where he asserts the na. ture of that kingdom, and the qualifications of his subjects.

One of our English poets, who was even a bigot of the church, hath expressed himself on this subject, in the manner following:

Inventions added in a fatal hour,

an appendages of pomp and pow'r,

“ As to the king, or queen, of any country, being head of the church, and having the appointment of bishops, and the nomination to church-livings, it is utterly inconsis

Whatever shines in outward granduer great,
I give it up-a creature of the state.
Wide of the church, as hell from heav'n is wide,
The blaze of riches and the glare of pride,
The yain desire to be entitled Lord,
The worldly kingdom, and the princely sword.
But should the bold, usurping spirit dare,
Still higher climb, and sit in Moses' chair,
Pow'r o'er my faith and conscience to maintain,
Shali I submit, and suffer it to reign?
Call it the church, and darkness put for light,
Falsehood with truth confound, and wrong with right?
No: I dispute the evil's haughty claim,
The spirit of the world be still its name,
Whatever call'd by man, 'tis purely evil,
'Tis Babel, Antichrist, and Pope, and Devil.

It is a curious circumstance in the history of religion ' in the present day, that while light, and knowledge, and liberality of sentiment are rapidly diffusing them. selves among mankind, a clergyman cuts off from salvation, most of the foreign Protestant churches, and

tent with the very essence of the evangelical dispensation, and the unalienable rights of mankind. Neither his majestyếnor the lord chancellor, nor his majesty's ministers, have, or can have any concern in the government of the church, or in the appointment of officers in it, or to it, directly, or indirectly, according to the spirit of the gospel, but only in their private capacities as 'individual members of the church. No man upon earth is entitled to

any such

power. It is one of the very worst traits of popery, and an infallible criterion of an anti

the whole body of Dissenters of every description in this country, but by the uncovenanted mercies of God. Richard Hill, in his Apology for Brotherly Love, has given such an answer to Daubeny's Guide, as that gentleman cannot refute. If the doctrine of the Guide be right, we cannot be justified in leaving the church of Rome. The capital mistake of the whole seems to be, a substitution of the church of England for the church of Christ, exactly in the same manner as the qvists substitute the church of Rome for the church

t.

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