were to be ordained and practised in all the churches, and they were to be known as the subjects of Jesus, by their love one to another. The blessings in reserve for such a people may be gathered from the gracious invitation of God himself: "Come out (from the world) and be ye separate, and I will receive you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty:" and the Apostle assures those who thus separate, that they shall be considered no longer "strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." "For ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people:" as God hath said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Over this select, organized body, Jesus is wisely appointed the only head. "All things," said he, "are delivered unto me by my Father." By his resurrection from the dead the Apostle declares him to be the "head of the body, the church;" that God had put all things under his feet, and given him to be head over all things to the church.

The members of this kingdom are to preserve a perfect equality. His gifted satire Jesus directed against the inequality of civil governors : "The kings of the nations lord it over them, and their tyrants are called benefactors; but do not ye act thus, but let the chief become as the servant.' The Scribes and Pharisees were solicitous for the first places and chief seats, greetings in the streets, and to be called Master; "but be not ye called master," said Jesus, "for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brothers." "There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, but ye are all one in Christ Jesus."

That this body (the church of God under the Christian dispensation) received the most complete organization, that it was a government distinct from the world, was

most evident. It is, indeed, "a building fitly framed together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth;" a body in which, "if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and if one rejoice, (such is the union,) that all rejoice together."

In the Scriptures we find plain directions how the government of this people is to be carried on: there we find what officers are to be appointed, their qualifications, and their duties: there we find the duties of members one towards the other, and towards their officers, and the church collectively: there we see the terms on which persons are to be admitted into that church, the controul of the church over the actions and abilities of its members. It is there we find most minute and discri minating directions as to different offences and disputes, and the conduct to be observed towards weak or wicked members; how to act in case of private offences or civil disputes, or of occasional error, or confirmed crime, or corrupt and wilful offenders; and, in all cases, a decided prohibition against any appeal to the civil governments of the world. The apostles recommended them rather to suffer wrong than to bring reproach upon a holy and peculiar people by any appeal to human authorities.

There is nothing omitted in the Scriptures necessary to constitute the church of God a complete government, fitted for every purpose of life. It is there we find the order the church is to observe in its ordinary meetings for instruction; there we find directions how the various members are to act, how the women, and how the men; the duties of wives, husbands, parents, and children, masters and servants; and it is there we find the relation in which the church stands with the world, that there is no union between a believer and an unbeliever, light and darkness, Christ and Belial." They are not of the world," says Jesus, "even as I am not of the world;" and it was the

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well-called for and necessary admonition of an apostle, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

Such, then, is the system of Christianity, the church of God; and how, let us ask, can a man be a part of this separated body and yet voluntarily unite himself with the governments of this world; how can he act in the latter capacity and yet preserve his principles and perform his duty in the former?

Under a series of propositions (however unconnected) I shall proceed to shew that he cannot; and that, so far from supporting civil governments by purifying and making them more durable, and thus prolonging the domi nion of man over his fellow-man, he ought, by a strict adherence to his own principles, by a warm advocacy of the government of God, to shew to all mankind the suffici ency of its laws, the importance of its duties, the purity of its principles, exhibiting in his life and conduct the prayer of his closet-May thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as in the church; may human dominion and tyranny cease, and the kingdoms of this world be, come the kingdom of the Lord and his Christ.

If this glorious consummation is devoutly wished, if we really believe that the kingdom of God and his Christ is to overthrow human governments, why (on the ground of reason alone, independently of other principles) should you aid in support of civil power otherwise than by submission and obedience? I shall be told, it is only to purify it; but what, let me briefly ask, would the friends of Don Pedro think, should one of his own party commence a reform of Miguel's government for the purpose of more firmly establishing it in the affections of his people? Or what would a sincere Dissenter think, should one of his own party set about making just such an alteration in

some parts of the Church Establishment as should prolong its existence, by making it more palatable to the vitiated tastes of the people? Could a sincere Dissenter respect such conduct? Then what will Jesus think of those believers who, instead of remaining inflexible adherents to his cause, unite themselves with those of whom it is said "he will destroy them with the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming" ?

"YE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON.”

A little reflection would shew the impossibility of carrying on human governments consistently with Christian principles; the impossibility of acting from the moral, ennobling, and refined precepts of Jesus, in human legislation; in short, the impossibility of enacting and enforcing the laws of man without transgressing the laws of God.

That such is the case, I am almost relieved from the necessity of proving, by the acknowledgments of politi cians and even statesmen themselves; but I submit, that with such an admission, is it not monstrous, is it not iniquitous, that men who make such acknowledgments should themselves assume the two-fold character of both statesman and Christian? With such admission, is not my position established-" Man unfit to govern man"?

On a late discussion in the legislative assembly of this country, an eminent statesman and politician, Sir Robert Peel, Bart., in answer to the Attorney-General, is reported (in the Times of May 22, 1832) to have said, "The Attorney-General, in the course of his speech, had said, I have myself acted as a criminal judge. I had to pass sentence on a person charged with having published a most scandalous work, revolting to the feelings of every man of common decency, not merely on account of its calling in question the most sacred truths of religion,

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but also on account of the ribaldry and profaneness with which it treated them.' Now, he (Sir Robert Peel) could understand an Attorney-General saying, I doubt the policy of instituting a prosecution against such a man;' but that was not what the present Attorney-General had said. He had said, I sentenced that man to eighteen months' imprisonment; but so certain, was I of the moral injustice-I speak not of legal injustice-which I committed in sentencing a man who sincerely entertained such opinions to such an imprisonment, that it was a relief to my mind and conscience, and I again felt happy when those eighteen months were expired.' Well, then, if the question were to be considered not as a question regarding the policy of instituting prosecutions in such cases, but a question regarding the moral justice of visiting the offences which caused them with punishment, he (Sir Robert Peel) doubted whether it would be possible long to maintain the existence of government under the practical execution of such principles." Here we have acknowledgments from two persons, at that time holding high, official situations in the government of this country, openly declared, of the impossibility of maintaining the existence of human government, and at the same time of preserving moral justice. Here is a direct and a correct admission, that legal justice and civil policy have no communion with, but are in opposition to, moral justice and moral duty.

But it appears I have a still wider admission of the truth of my position. In a leading article of that most able and leading journal, to which we have just referred, we find this declaration:"Clerical magistrates are, throughout England, a hated race, partly because there exists a strong and just dislike, amongst right-thinking people, to the degradation of the sacred office of a