the world, if his followers had more implicitly complied:"Put up thy sword into the sheath; they who draw the sword, shall perish by the sword."

It may seem strange, Sir, after having made these strong statements of disapprobation of the civil establishment of religion in all its forms, I should now profess myself a decided friend to an established religion, and an established church-to the established religion, and the established church, in the only proper, though it may not be quite in the common and conventional, sense of these words. But strange as it may seem, it is true; and I know I carry you, and all around me, along with me in the profession I have now made.

The only way in which religion, that is, a system of religious doctrines and laws, can be established, in a consistency with its nature, is by satisfactory evidence of their divine truth, and divine authority. There has been such an establishment of religion made. The code of doctrine and law contained in the Holy Scriptures has been thus established. This religion was "spoken to us by the Lord, and confirmed by them who heard him; while God also bare witness by diverse signs and wonders, and diverse miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." This is the established religion, and this is the establishment of it.

And as to the established church-What is the church? It is very well described in the nineteenth article of the church of England, as "a congregation of faithful," i. e. believing

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men, to which the pure

word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered."* Now, how is such a church established? When, by the effectual influence of the Holy Spirit, a man is brought to understand and believe the doctrines, to understand and submit to the laws of Jesus Christ, the true religion is established in that man; he becomes a faithful or believing man and when a number of these faithful men, from a regard to the authority of Jesus Christ, associate themselves together, according to the due order, that among them" the pure word of God may be preached, and the sacraments be duly administered;" there is a church established. This is the true established

*The following somewhat more extended account of "the Church," by an Episcopalian divine (who, though so blind to the true character of the politico-ecclesiastical body, with which he is connected, as to style it "our most unsectarian church,"-an unhesitating utterance of a mere hallucination which irresistibly provokes a good humoured smile,-manifests a clearness and width of view, and a catholicity of spirit, curiously contrasting with his idolatry of what certainly is the most sectarian of all Protestant ecclesiastical bodies), will serve our purpose still better than the very brief, though just, description quoted above from the Thirty-Nine Articles, the civilly sanctioned, and enacted symbol of the only faith which, according to the British Parliament, ought to be held or professed within the realm of England:

"The Church is emphatically a voluntary society, attracting, not compelling men into its fellowship, and binding together those who have entered thereunto, not by the chains of a penal enactment, but by the cords of a man, which are the bands of love. Community of thought and feeling is the end to be constantly kept in view,—and communication of truth by every rational and moral means, by preaching, writing, speaking; by example, education, social influence,— this is the method by. which that end must be pursued. Not legal enactment, not priestly domination, not Procrustean efforts for enforced similarity, can ever create a spiritual brotherhood, but the presence, of one common purpose, in each and in all, animated by one common feeling, and pressing towards one common end.”—Griffith's Christian Church, pp. 16, 19, 20.

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church, and this is the establishment of it. The whole of such societies, thus constituted, form the church militant-universal. This, then, is the established religion; and this is the established church, founded, not on acts of a human legislature, but on "the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."

*..

Of this established religion,-of this established church, we are the devoted admirers. We believe in this true religion,-" we believe in this holy catholic church." "HER foundations are in the holy mountains. The Highest himself shall establish her. God is in the midst of her; she cannot be moved. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love her. Peace be within her walls, and prosperity be within her palaces. For our brethren and companions' sake, we will say, Peace be within her; for the house of the Lord our God, we will seek her good. The gates of hell shall not prevail against her. Walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, and consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God, for ever; He will be our guide, even unto death."†

But, it is just because we are such fervent admirers of this religion, and this church, and this establishment, that we have lost all admiration for any other established religion-for any other established church. Of course, it cannot be expected, that we

+ Psal. lxxxvii. 1-4; xlvi. 5; cxxii. 6-9; xlviii. 12–14.

are to give reasons for not liking the establishment of a false religion, or the establishment of a spurious church. Our opponents do not go so far as to ask this of us; though, were we adopting their principles, we should find it difficult to show good cause, when the magistrate is a pagan, a mohammedan, or a heretic, why we should not approve of the establishment of a false religion, and a spurious church-of the koran and the mosque-of the shaster and the pagoda, -as well as of the Bible and the Church.

But our admiration of the divine establishment of the true religion, and the true church, is such, as to give us a strong disrelish of all human establishments —even of them. To establish them, really seems, to us, actum agere, with a witness,-to do what is done already. Who would think of giving greater beauty to the rose, or brightness to the sunbeam, or depth to the fathomless ocean, or stability to the everlasting hills? It is shrewdly remarked, by an old writer on this subject, "One would think, when God himself had taken in hand to establish the true religion, and had done what he in his wisdom thought proper for that purpose, what he had done should be sufficient, so far as any thing could be, to the end he proposed: without which, one can hardly think, that he would have done it at all.”*

To establish the true religion by human means, seems to us impracticable, if it were desirable; and useless, if it were practicable. Can all the power and authority on earth, give additional evidence to divine

* Mole's Case of Dissent. Vide Note V.

truth, or additional authority to divine law? "Religion," it has been finely observed, "if it has any power, operates on the conscience of men. Resting solely on the belief of invisible realities, and having for its object, the good or evil of eternity, it can derive no additional weight or solemnity from human sanctions; but will appear to most advantage upon hallowed ground, remote from the noise and tumult of a worldly policy. Human laws may debase Christianity, but they cannot improve it; and being able to add nothing to its evidence, they can add nothing to its force." There is indeed something ineffably absurd, in the attempt to make Christianity, as it is barbarously phrased, "part and parcel" of the law of any land. It is to hold up a taper in the effulgence of noon-day. It is the petty municipal head of some decayed borough reduced to a hamlet, attempting to give new authority to an act of the British legislature, sanctioned by king, lords, and commons-by declaring it the law of his dominions; or rather, for it far transcends such folly, it is the same self-important personage issuing a proclamation, that the sun shall have liberty to rise in the east, and set in the west, within the limits of his jurisdiction.

To attempt to establish the true church, seems to us equally preposterous. Can human-can created power form the materials of which the true church is composed? "Is the residue of the Spirit" with any civil government on earth, that by his plastic influence they may make men new creatures?"

* Hall.

No;