a footing which, though of course not satisfactory to Dissenters, would yet not directly interfere with their conscientious convictions, and be free from those peculiarities which have made the annuity tax very generally considered, even by Churchmen, an intolerable nuisance. It must strike every reflecting mind, that if there is to be an Established Church at all, the least objectionable mode of paying its clergy is directly from the public purse; and that tithes and teinds almost necessarily occasion frequent disagreement between the minister and his parishioners. But if human ingenuity had been tasked to produce the plan which would throw most obstacles in the way of the clergy of a city answering the great spiritual ends of their functions, nothing more perfect in its kind could have been the result than our annuity tax.

With the most friendly feelings towards the city clergy, as Christian ministers, I have often wondered that an enlightened regard to their own interest, as well as the interests of religion, had not long ago induced them to go, along with the citizens, to Parliament, and insist that while they had as good a right to a respectable maintenance as any other class of ministers in the church, they could not consent to continue to be supported in a manner so hateful to the great body of the people, and of course so hostile to the success of their ministerial labours; and if possible, I have wondered still more, that when an arrangement was proposed by our municipal rulers, which would have got rid of many of the evils connected with the present system, the proposal, instead of being hailed by the clergy, as a boon, was resented by them, as an insult.

66

The concluding words of Dr Murray's Tract, already referred to, published three years and a half ago, seem almost prophetic. Part of the prediction has been fulfilled; and if there is not a little more wisdom manifested in certain quarters, the rest may be accomplished sooner than they think. Assuredly if the annuity tax, in any shape or under any circumstances, be continued, it will not fail to aggravate the present excitement, to withdraw more and more both the affections and respect of the people from our most respectable clergy, and ultimately, perhaps, endanger the very existence of our national church." When the Establishment falls, it will be pulled down by the hands of its supporters; and the result, however unlooked for by themselves, will surprise no other body. They are pulling very hard just now.

This was true when this note was written ten months ago. It is to a much greater extent true now. The late doings of the General Assem

bly of the Church of Scotland, and of its Commission, are a direct attack on the very vitals of the Establishment. While our northern presbyters are as busy as any Voluntary's heart could wish in demolishing "the kirk"-the Bishop of Exeter seems equally bent on "dinging doun the cathedral," as our gifted countryman Tennant, (in whom philological erudition and poetical genius meet in uncommon but not unseemly union) has it. Sound-minded, far-sighted churchmen, like Dr George Cook, may cry "Quid miserum laceras ? parce pias scelerare manus." We cannot but wish them success.The lessons they have given do not seem to have been lost on our secular rulers-and we cannot regret this, for we have a confident hope, that the day of the Establishments' funeral will be the day of the Churches' resurrection.

NOTE XXXIII..

REMARKS ON THE ASSOCIATE SYNOD'S ACT RESPECTING CHURCH

PAYMENTS, 1752.

The doctrine which I have taught and acted on in reference to the payment of tribute, has been represented as something like an inconsistency in a person connected with the United Secession Church; and in proof of this, I suppose, repeated reference has been made to an act concerning church payments in England and Ireland, passed by the Associate (Antiburgher) Synod at Edinburgh, March 4, 1752, -of which the following is a copy :—

"The Synod resumed farther consideration of the affairs relating to various payments required by the order of civil society in England and Ireland; particularly from some people there who are under the inspection of this Synod; which payments are applied for supporting the Episcopal Churches there, in their present state of corruption and superstition. After some time spent in reasoning and deliberation on the subject, with prayer for light and direction in the case; the Synod agreed in declaring, That though the afore-mentioned payments are applied to the support of manifold corruptions and superstitions in those Episcopal Churches, which we are essaying to testify against, and which all ranks of persons in these lands ought to be humbled for before the Lord, as being deep causes of his wrath against and controversy with them; yet the Synod did not find a relevant

ground for scruple of conscience, about submitting to civil authority in the foresaid payments, as if this could imply any homologation of the foresaid corruptions and superstitions, or of what application is made of those payments unto the support thereof, while the payers are openly engaged in a public testimony against the same, and are not suppressed in the maintenance of that testimony, but are protected in the exercise of their civil and religious liberties, and the said payments are made only in a compliance with the common order of society."-Gib's Display, vol. II. p. 125.

To this act Mr Gib appends the following note:-" As hath been observed elsewhere, persons may reckon themselves safe in point of conscience to comply with all simple payments (that is, payments without any concomitant declaration of consent to the uses made thereof) according to the civil order of society, whether statute or common-law, in any country where they are enjoying the benefit of government (no way like the case of our late sufferers who were thrown out from the protection of government, and yet were required to pay a cess for the express purpose of hiring soldiers to kill them), without reckoning themselves any way answerable for the government's application thereof, while they are otherwise studying honesty with respect to public corruptions.

"What of a person's substance is required by common or statute law, or by the common order of civil society, cannot be reckoned his own, more than the rent which is in a tenant's hand can be reckoned his own; and, consequently, the payment of it can no more infer an approbation of the uses to which it is applied by those to whom it is paid, than a tenant's payment of his rent can infer an approbation of the debauched uses, perhaps, his master makes of it.

"Hard exactions were made on the Israelites in Egypt, and what of their effects or workmanship they were obliged to give up, was, no doubt, partly applied to the worst of uses; but this was considered as their affliction, and non-submission to such exactions was never charged on them as their sin. The Israelites likewise paid heavy taxes under the Babylonish captivity; which, no doubt, was partly applied to the worst uses of heathen idolatry: and they complained of this as a heavy trial (Neh. ix. 36, 37), but they never confessed it as their transgression."

It may be right to state, that, while I regard with great respect the worthy men who, met in council, gave the above utterance of their

judgments I hold along with them, that "all Councils and Synods since the Apostles' times, whether general or particular, may err, and → many have erred,* ”—that acts of Synod were never, in the Secession,

placed on a level with the symbolical books, far less with the Bible— and that at the union of the two great bodies into which the Secession had been divided, an approval of the acts of either of the two Synods, formed no term of the consociation. With the document I therefore have nothing to do, but so far as it may contain in it a statement or proof which may invalidate the principle I hold and act on. In this aspect, let us look at it for a little.

With regard to the act itself, it is plain that it is only on the hypothesis, that the payment of the religious taxes referred to did not homologate the corruptions and superstitions of the Churches of England and Ireland, the Synod declare the payment safe; and it is equally plain that, but for their being openly engaged in a public testimony against these corruptions and superstitions, they would have considered said payment as homologation, and on that ground would have condemned it: and it seems still farther evident, that had any of the people under the inspection of the Synod declared that they could not help considering it as homologation, the Synod would have, with the Apostle, said, "It is evil to him who" payeth" with offence. He that doubteth is condemned if he" pay-" because he” payeth “not of faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."+

The notes appended to the act are not by the Synod, but by the able and acute editor of their proceedings, the Rev. ADAM GIB. The first paragraph has no bearing on the question before us. In it we are merely taught, what I firmly believe, that the fact that a government does not make the best use of the public revenue, is no sufficient reason for refusing to pay the taxes by which that revenue is raised. The case supposed in the second paragraph is not parallel to that of a person required to pay a religious tax for a purpose which he conscientiously disapproves. The parallel case is this: The landlord not only wastes his rent, which I pay him, in vicious indulgence, but he exacts from me what he never had a right to, and requires me to pay it not to himself, but directly to some minister of his vile pleasures, for the express purpose of securing his services. In the estimation of the really conscientious refuser to pay a religious tax, the civil magistrate has no right to levy a religious tax; and when he does levy it, he requires him to pay it directly to the support of what he considers as inconsistent with the will of God. I * Westmin. Conf. of Faith, c. xxxi. § 4. + Rom. xiv. 20-23.

really think the tenant could not be justly blamed if he said--I will not only pay you the rent I owe you, but, rather than quarrel with you, I will pay also what I do not think you have any claim on me for, if you require it, just as additional rent; but I never will become the pander of your vices-the partner of your crimes. In like manner, I can see nothing blameworthy in saying I will not refuse to pay whatever the government may demand of me for the general purposes of civil rule, even though the demand should appear to me unreasonable; but if they ask of me money for a purpose which I believe to be wrong, they may take it from me, but they shall not get it from me. The cases referred to in the third paragraph are obviously not at all to the point. We have no reason to believe that in Egypt or in Babylon, or under the Persian kings, a specific tax for the support of idolatry was levied of the Israelites. I am persuaded that if, under the Syro-Macedonian dynasty, any such impost had been exacted, the spirit of the Maccabees would have prevented its payment.

NOTE XXXIV.

EXPOSITION AND DEFENCE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FRIENDS

RESPECTING CHURCH TAXES.

J. J. GURNEY.

"It is certain that, whenever these demands (tithes and other ecclesiastical imposts) are made on the true and consistent Friend, he will not fail to refuse the payment of them; not because such refusal is generally insisted on in the Society, but because the religious sentiments which he has embraced, and which have been explained in these essays, inevitably lead him, if he be faithful, into that result. He feels that it is a duty, laid upon him by his Divine Master, uniformly to maintain the spirituality and freedom of the Christian ministry; nor will he venture, by any action of his own, to lay waste his principle, and to weaken the force of truth, with respect to so important a subject. Such an action, the voluntary payment of tithes must unquestionably be considered.

"This conclusion is by no means affected by the consideration that the payment of tithes is imposed on the inhabitants of this country by the law of the land; and that, therefore, the clergy have a