luminous and impressive representations of the grand peculiarities of the method of salvation that are to be found in his works, especially in his Address to the Methodists, and his Letters to Alexander Knox, Esq. :

"It is contrary to the nature and laws of Christ's kingdom, that his disciples should acknowledge the State religion as theirs, or hold any connexion with the religious Establishment of the country. If, as in this highly favoured land, they are allowed the undisturbed practice of their religion, according to the laws of Christ, abundant thankfulness becomes them. If they should not-patient suffering. But according to his laws alone, whose kingdom is not of this world, are they called to regulate their religious walk, and to stand unconnected with any religious bodies, under whatever name, who walk not by that rule, but by regulations that rest on the wisdom or authority of men. If this were the duty of Christians in the days of the apostles, it is their duty now. I know that many professors think it a wild idea, that Christians should now walk as they did then; and certainly it cannot be expected of persons who have believed something under the name of a gospel, different from that which the apostles preached. But why those who believe the apostolic gospel should not still walk according to the apostolic rule, these professors will find it hard to assign any reason, unless their indisposition to such a walk be reckoned one.

"Now, let us suppose that an imperial edict had been sent to the saints in Christ Jesus who were at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons' (the overseers and servants) of that Christian church. Let us suppose this imperial edict announcing to them that the Roman emperor and the great officers of his court had become Christians, and that, in his zeal for the gospel, he was resolved to take the religion of Christ under his patronage; and that he would give a political sanction to the Christians at Philippi, and would recognize some of them as public teachers of Christianity, under the warrant of the State, provided they would adopt a certain mode of regulations in their religious exercises and conduct, which he annexed to the edict. Upon such a supposition, let me ask what would have been the answer of the church at Philippi? Christian reader! Are you at any loss to conjecture? What ought it to have been but this: We have received from the apostles of the Lord Jesus, how we ought to walk and to please God. We are bound by our allegiance to our Divine Master, to hold fast the precepts which have been delivered to us by his inspired servants. We are taught by them, indeed, to submit our

selves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake; but, at the same time, to know that the ordinance of human rulers extends only to matters of this world,—that Christ's kingdom is not of this world, and that by his laws alone we are to be regulated in our Christian walk. If the Emperor and the officers of his court have been given to believe his gospel, we rejoice in the grace that has been imparted to them, although not more than we would rejoice if we heard the same thing of his meanest subjects-inasmuch as the glory of Christ's church consists not in the human greatness of those who are added to it. We desire that he and his believing courtiers may walk according to the same apostolic rule by which we desire to abide; and in the place of which, or in addition to which, we dare not to receive any other rule. We hear without any emotion, but that of surprise, that the Emperor is resolved to patronize the religion of Christ in his imperial capacity. Witnesses of Christ, we think it needful to remind him as a professing brother, that all the wealth of his treasury, or the power of his kingdom, cannot make one Christian, no more than, employed in opposition to our Lord, they could defeat his counsels or overturn his government.

"That such as this would have been, or that such as this ought to have been, the reply of the Philippian church to such a proposal as I have supposed, I am in my judgment and conscience persuaded: and I believe others will feel the same persuasion, just in proportion to the clearness with which they discern what kind of body an apostolic church was.

66 Again, let us suppose that there had been no such thing as a politico-religious Establishment to the present day: and that, amidst ever so great corruptions of faith and practice in other professors of Christianity, there were in this country some churches of Christ, in which the purity of the apostolic faith was preserved, and who continued to walk according to the simplicity of the apostolic rule-' followers of the churches of God which in Judea were in Christ Jesus ;' 1 Thess. ii. 14. Let us suppose that a similar proposal were now made for the first time, by the government of this country, to such churches and let those who are spiritual say, would they, ought they to accede to it? Ought they either to give up their existing order, for the purpose of coalescing with the religion of the state; or attempt (as I vainly did for some time) to combine the observance of their existing order with a conformity to the code of human regulations, which we suppose offered to their acceptance? would they not say, if they replied aright, We are walking according to the best

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of our judgment by the rules which the apostles delivered to the first churches of Christ, and which stand on record in their writings: we shall be thankful to you or any who may help us into a clearer insight into those rules: but we dare not renounce submission to their authority, or countenance the idea of their insufficiency, by adopting regulations which are not even professedly derived from that source?'

"Other professors, we may suppose, would readily accede to the proposals of our government. But who? Those who had never imbibed the apostolic spirit, or walked by the apostolic precepts; or else had awfully departed from both. And if there must have been such a departure in the professors of Christianity, before any of them could have become connected with a religious Establishment, does it not clearly follow that the few who now believe the gospel which the apostles preached, and desire to come back to the rule by which they directed the first churches to walk, are called at once to withdraw themselves from all such connexion?

"I am aware that the whole of this argument must appear very uninteresting and foolish, to the great mass of professors in Christendom. They think that matters go on very well, under that easy profession of worldly religion, which goes by the name of Christianity; and which they find not only consistent with their worldly interests, but in many instances subservient to them. They will think the argument abundantly answered, by observing, We are very well; what occasion for any change from the course in which the Christian world has been walking for ages?' And to such persons, I repeat it, my argument is not addressed. It is little matter whether they be connected with the religious Establishment or not. They are carnal Churchmen; and, in their present state, they would be just as carnal Dissenters. To many of them also no force of argument upon the subject could carry conviction, because they are determined not to be convinced. Conviction would call them to sacrifice either worldly interests, or fleshly lusts; the one promoted by the connexion with that against which I argue; the other attacked by those laws of Christ's kingdom, which I mentioned as the only rule of his followers. With the children of the world, conviction would be as hopeless in this matter, as it would be unprofitable. It is only to the disciples of Christ, that I desire to address myself on the subject. And in proportion as their attention is directed to it, and in proportion as they walk in the spirit of disciples, I do expect that they will discern the

force of the argument.”—Walker's Reasons for leaving the Establishment.-Edin. Evan. Mag. vol. iii. p. 250, &c.

WARBURTON.

The working of a civil Establishment is just what might be expected from its nature. The following graphic sketches are from the powerful hand of WARBURTON. I have no doubt of the likeness thenthe reader will judge of the likeness now :

"The Church, like the ark of Noah, is worth saving; not for the sake of the unclean beasts and vermin that almost filled it, and probably made most noise and clamour in it, but for the little corner of rationality, that was as much distressed by the stink within, as by the tempest without.

"Our Grandees have at last found their way back into the church. I only wonder they have been so long about it. But be assured that nothing but a new religious revolution, to sweep away the fragments that Harry the Eighth left, after banqueting his courtiers, will drive them out again. The Church has been of old the cradle and the throne of the younger nobility. And this nursing mother will, I hope, once more vie with old imperious Berecynthia—

Læta Deum partu, centum complexa Nepotes,

Omnes Coelicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes.'

"You mention Noah's ark. I have really forgot what I said of it. But I suppose I compared the Church to it, as many a grave divine has done before me.-The Rabbins make the giant Gog or Magog contemporary with Noah, and convinced by his preaching. So that he was disposed to take the benefit of the ark. But here lay the distress; it by no means suited his dimensions. Therefore as he could not enter in, he contented himself to ride upon it astride. And though you must suppose that, in that stormy weather, he was more than half-boots over, he kept his seat, and dismounted safely when the ark landed on Mount Ararat. Imagine now to yourself this illustrious cavalier, mounted on his hackney: and see if it does not bring before you the Church, bestrid by some lumpish minister of state, who turns and winds it at his pleasure. The only difference is, that Gog believed the preacher of righteousness and religion."-Letters from a late eminent Prelate to one of his Friends, pp. 114, 118, 119. 8vo. Lond. 1809.

NOTE XIX.

ON THE DESIGN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

In addition to the authorities on the design of civil government, mentioned in the text, the reader may not be displeased to see the opinions of such men as DR JOHN OWEN, WHISTON, BISHOP WARBUrton, ADAM SMITH, ARCHBISHOP, WHATELY, and COVENTRY DICK,-men very unlike each other in almost every trait of intellectual and spiritual character, but all belonging to a high order of minds.

OWEN.

"I doubt not but that the magistrate hath all that power, which is absolutely necessary for the preservation of public peace and tranquillity in the world. But if men may be allowed to fancy what they please to be necessary unto that end, and thence to make their own measures to that power, which is to be ascribed unto him, no man knows what bounds will be fixed unto that ocean wherein the Leviathans, they have framed in their imagination, may sport themselves. Some will perhaps think it necessary for this purpose, that the magistrate shall have power to declare and determine whether there be a God or no: whether, if there be, it be necessary he be worshipped or no: whether any religion be useful in, or to the world: and if there be, then to determine what all subjects shall believe and practise, from first to last, in the whole of it. Others may confine it to lesser things, according as their own interest doth call upon them so to do, though they are not able to assign a clear distinction between what is subjected unto him, and what may plead an exemption from his authority.

"He, indeed, who is the fountain and original of all power, hath both assigned its proper end, and fully suited it to the attainment thereof. And if the noise of men's lusts, passions, and interests, were but a little silenced, we should quickly hear the consenting voice of humane nature itself, declaring the just proportion that is between the grant of power and its end, and undeniably expressing it, in all the instances of it. For as the principle of rule and subjection is natural to us, concreated with us, and indispensably necessary to humane society, in all the distinctions it is capable of, and relations, whence those distinctions rise; so Nature itself, duly attended unto, will not fail by the reason of things to direct us unto all that is essential unto it, and