same reason, the State cannot, by divine authority, either elect or appoint the Ministers of the Church, simply as gospel Ministers, nor depose the same: any more than the Church can appoint Ministers of State, and depose the same. The Pope has as much right to depose Kings, as Kings have to depose gospel Ministers. The confounding of these things, was the cause of the horrible wars between the Popes and the German Emperors. Opposition to any civil government, in the exercise of its own proper authority, under any pretence of religion, is ungodliness and rebellion; and the civil sword ought to punish and repress it. There cau be no peace to either Church or State, but by each keeping distinctly within its own sphere. The State has a right to demand obedience to the civil laws, and loyalty to the King and constitution, from every subject of the realm. Protestantism teaches loyalty to all Kings: Popery denies allegiance to all Protestant Sovereigns, by the Fourth Lateran Council. No pretences about the good of the Church should be suffered for one moment to interfere with this point. Where there is not true allegiance to the civil Magistrate, there is no claim for protection or privilege. But then, where this allegiance is secured, with obedience to all the civil laws of the State, the authority of the State extends NO FURTHER. Every man, as a peaceful and loyal subject, has a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. And every society of men, whilst obedient to the civil laws, and loyal to the State, have a right, so far as the State is concerned, to form regulations for their own worship and church discipline. If they chuse to give up this right to the State, in whole or in part, then, so far as such a society is concerned, the State has a right to exercise it. But the good of both will be best secured by keeping them perfectly distinct. The State may give its support to any peculiar form of faith; but it has no divine right to interfere, by force, with any other forms of faith or worship, so long as the individuals following those forms are LOYAL SUBJECTS to the civil government, and to the King as supreme civil Magistrate: OTHERWISE the STATE might LAWFULLY establish HEATHENISM or MOHAMMEDANISM, and PERSECUTE CHRISTIANITY. Any particular section of the Church, may accept of this support from a civil government, so long as it is done consistently with the nature, laws, and end of that Church, and of all other Christian Churches. As to its own interests,-it should make its own spiritual or purely ecclesiastical laws; elect, and appoint its own Ministers, as Ministers of the gospel; and administer spiritual discipline over its own members. To bring in the sccular arm in any of these cases, is unchristian : it will also inevitably secularize and corrupt the church. A STATE CHURCH has no AUTHORITY OVER OTHER CHURCHES because of pecuniary support from the State. The State can give it none. The State has no authority but civil authority. Civil authority has no jurisdiction over the conduct of individuals, except as civil members of the State. In fact, any particular

STATE CHURCH is rather under obligation to the members of all other particular churches, for their part in the support of that church. The members of any particular church have a civil right to object in an orderly, constitutional, and peaceable manner to the state support of another particular church. If the state church becomes PROUD, and PERSECUTING, because of its state support, then it would seem that a serious Christian would be bound to withold his influence from upholding it. If he thinks he ought to do more, he is justified, so that he does it peaceably, orderly, and constitutionally. If he thinks otherwise, he ought to act as a conscientious man. Let no man condemn him.

Such are the principles taught in the word of God; such also are the principles advocated in this Essay; and such are their consequences. The Church of the living God, is a spiritual Church; all true believers everywhere constitute this Church: They are "ONE BODY, there is One Spirit, One Baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above and through all, and in all." The MINISTERS of this Church are all Brethren. We are to call no man Master upon earth, for one is our Master in Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Jesus said unto the Apostles, ye know that the Prince of the Gentiles exercises DOMINION over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them (i. e. act as LORDS OVER THEM), but it shall NOT be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your Minister."-Matt. xx, 25, 26. "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of Christ. Wherefore, when he ascended upon high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, and he gave some Apostles; and some Prophets; and some Evangelists; and some Pastors and Teachers; for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the UNITY of the FAITH, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."Ephes. iv, 7, 13.

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Fellow Protestants! of every denomination, the writer would address all as brethren. If he knows his own heart, he writes to promote UNITY AMONGST PROTESTANTS, as brethren. But this unity can only be established by putting aside all principles that exclude and persecute such as hold the HOLY SCRIPTURES as the only and sufficient rule of FAITH and PRACTICE: such as, on the Faith of Scriptures, embrace the Doctrine of the Trinity; the perfection and sufficiency of the Atonement of Christ, the Divinity and sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost; Justification by Faith alone in that Atonement; Sanctification through the operation of the Holy Ghost; and living Faith and Scriptural holiness as the fruits of this Faith, and as the way to Heaven. Wherever these are, Christ is there; the Church of God is there. The form of worship may differ; but there is the way, the truth, and the life. Christianity does

not depend on forms of church government, but on the truth as it is in Jesus. On this rock Christ builds his church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

Will you, on these principles,-the principles of the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible-will you on these principles, give me, give every one that receives them, the right hand of fellowship? I trust you will. I most cordially do it to every one, whatever may be the denomination he may have amongst men, who thus receives the truth as it is in Jesus. To me, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, as to such, for we have all been baptized into one body, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. We are one and the same church, -one and the same body of Christ. The little differences of doctrine, or modes of worship, that are found amongst such, do not not affect the essentials of our Christianity. GENUINE PROTESTANTISM IS ONE, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all; one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. In this view of Protestantism as one-one body— the address of the Apostle is beautiful. May the Holy Spirit write it on the heart of every Protestant. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be No SCHISM IN THE BODY; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.— 1. Cor. xii. 12,--26.

Popery, Brethren, according to all the venerable Reformers, whether in the vallies of the Alps, in Switzerland, in Bohemia, in Germany, in France, or in Britain,-POPERY IS ANTICHRIST. It is an awful corruption

of Christianity. It is spiritual whoredom; the church forsaking her covenant with God, and playing the harlot with other gods, and other lords. "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of the fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." Rev. xvii. 3-6. The Church of Rome has been drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

POPERY is UNCHANGEABLE. Popery is sworn hostility to Protestantism. Every Papist is taught this as an article of his creed. All out of the church of Rome, she holds as HERETICS: Protestants she holds as heretics. She curses them with the most dreadful curses. Every Papist solemnly says in his creed, "I DO, in LIKE MANNER, CONDEMN, REJECT, and CURSE THEM." And he concludes: "This true Catholic Faith, out of which no one can be saved, which I do now, of my own accord, profess and truly do hold, the same I will take care to retain whole and inviolate most constantly, so far as I am able, unto the latest breath of my life; and, by the assistance of God, I will take care that those who are subject to me, or whose care in the place I am in shall belong to me, shall HOLD, teach, and preach the same also." "I, the same N. do promise, vow, and swear this. So may God and these holy gospels of God help me!”

Popery makes no difference in her denunciations against heretics, as in the Establishment, or as of other denominations. She curses that church and the KING, or the QUEEN, as fiercely as she curses the meanest subject of the realm. The POPE thus cursed Queen Elizabeth as a heretic :-" Moreover we do declare her to be DEPRIVED of her PRETENDED TITLE to the kingdom, and of all dominion, dignity, and privilege whatsoever. And ALSO the Nobility, Subjects, and People of the said kingdom, and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her, to be for ever ABSOLVED from any such oath, and all manner of duty, of dominion, allegiance and obedience; as we also do by the authority of these presents, absolve them, and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended TITLE to the kingdom, and all other things aforesaid, And we do command and interdict all and every the Noblemen, subjects, People and others aforesaid, that they presume NOT to OBEY HER, or her ministers, mandates, and laws; and those who shall do the contrary, we bind in the same sentence TO BE ACCURSED—given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1570." Bull of Pope Pius V. This Bull is given "in PERPETUAL MEMORIAL of

the Matter that the Bishop of Rome, as Peter's successor, has ALONE been made Prince over all people, and ALL KINGDOMS, to PLUCK UP, DESTROY, SCATTER, CONSUME, plant, and build, that he may retain the faithful that are knit together with the bond of charity, in the unity of the spirit, and present them spotless and unblameable to their Saviour." These things shew what POPERY Is-and what Protestants have To EXPECT FROM POPERY.

What, then, is the wisdom of Protestants? The watchword of the enemy, is, “Divide and Conquer." Let the motto of Protestants be, "The UNITY of the SPIRIT in the BOND OF PEACE." Let no Protestants set up exclusive, intolerant schemes against their fellow Protestants. He that does so is an enemy to Protestantism, and a friend of Popery. This Essay has been intended to expose, refute, and put away a scheme of this kind, already sufficiently characterized. The author requests the co-operation of every true Protestant in this design. If there are any defects in the Essay (and the author is far from considering it faultless), let them be pointed out, and corrected. If any can do better, I wish him success. May the Great Head of the church pour the Spirit out upon ALL PIOUS MINISTERS, and upon ALL THEIR CONGREGATIONS; may he send faithful shepherds to his flock everywhere and may the kingdom of our God speedily come, and all the ends of the earth see his salvation! Amen!