That Christ himself recognised no other guide is obvious. He exhorted the people "to take heed how they heard"-" to search the scriptures," doubtless that they might interpret them—to compare with his own character the description of the Messiah given by "Moses and the prophets." His disciples he warned against the assumption and admission of undue authority" Call no man your father upon the earth, neither be ye called masters;" neither impose your opinions upon others, nor suffer them to impose theirs upon you. When the Sadducees, ignorant of "the scriptures and the power of God," proposed a question relative to the resurrection, mark how the Saviour answered them-" Have ye not read?"-then quoted a text, and shewed by reasoning the truth of the doctrine they denied. The gospel appeals throughout to the judgment of the poor. Its miracles-" its gracious words"-its sublime disclosures-all were intended to prove the divinity of the Saviour's mission.

The apostles copied closely the pattern of Christ. In addressing the Corinthians, the proudest and most prejudiced of the primitive churches, Paul acknowledges their privilege, and exhorts them to use it.

eyes, that they may look through a telescope at the stars. If I must do as the church bids me, I must surely interpret the church's language, and then act upon my own interpretation. I still act as I think the highest authority has enjoined. Whether that authority be the Bible or the church is another question.-See note D.

"I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say." The heathen, he tells us in another epistle, are condemned, because they had forgotten the "invisible things of God, which are clearly seen, being understood from the things that are made." "Let every man," says he again, "be fully persuaded in his own mind," and let his actions be consistent with his persuasion, "for whatever is against it is sin." (Rom. xiv.) The people of Berea were commended for examining into the truth of the apostle's doctrines; the magistrates professed themselves "no judges in such matters," and the truth prospered. "The reasoning" of the apostle, as Luke calls the addresses of Paul, was accompanied, as might have been hoped, with the "demonstration of the Spirit and of power."*

To exercise our reason, then, in searching the scriptures, and to believe as we understand God has spoken, is a duty we owe to Himself, and is consequently paramount to every other. They, therefore, who punish others for acting and believing as in their judgment divine authority has commanded, are, in truth, "fighting against God." Did the endowment of a religious sect rob me of my rights as a citizen, I might bear it,—I may forego privileges, if it please me, but if it inflict penalties on the discharge of duty, if its claims and his be opposed, if it punish for

Compare Acts, xviii. 4, with 1 Cor. ii. 4.

conscience' sake, it becomes identified with his enemies, and therefore I cannot, I dare not, but regard it with the deepest abhorrence. Hatred of the system is part of my religion, and its overthrow one of the triumphs of the faith.

4. That all sects endowed with national power or national wealth have been favourable to persecution is certain. The history of them-whether catholic or protestant, both so called by courtesy-instead of being the history of truth and love, is nothing better than the history of cruelty and wrong: every page of

it is written in blood.

That their canons and courts display a persecuting spirit is equally certain: they inflict upon the refractory fines, penances, and excommunication; while the excommunicated are excluded from the privilege of recovering property by law, of giving evidence, and of Christian burial. Till within the last twenty years, the spirit of them had pervaded all the civil appointments of the government. No subject, however otherwise qualified, could fill any public office unless he conformed to the worship of the established sect.

Whatever objections, however, might be founded on these, the tendencies or the adjuncts of the system, we are contented to withhold. We shall suppose that all the civil disabilities of dissenters are removed, that Jews and infidels are alike eligible to offices of trust,

-that the theory of our constitution and the practice are one,—that no distinction is recognised but that of good and bad subject,—and still we assert fearlessly, that in the establishment of a religious sect there is the very essence of persecution, the infliction of penalties on all who conscientiously dissent from the articles of "the church."

5. Now, in return for this rejection of all but the essentials of an establishment, we must be allowed to take as granted, that the sin of persecution does not depend upon the number or even upon the actual infliction of penalties. If penalties be enacted and never inflicted, denounced and never undergone, they are equally unchristian. Spain is not the less intolerant because the inquisition has done its work, and dissent has ended in the union of universal indifference or universal unbelief. Nor is the amount of them a question of moment. All compulsion and restraint, all punishment, is either a duty or a sin: if the first, all privileges granted to heretics are alike sinful;* if the second, all disabilities inflicted or threatened are alike unjust. It is a persecuting spirit that the gospel condemns.

* We waive the question of the truth or error of the religious system which is endowed. Each man must regard the religion which his judgment tells him is the true one as binding; so Warburton, Whately, and others, allow. Besides, establishments inflict a penalty, not on error, but on private judgment,—one of the duties, be it remembered, of the Christian.

6. The first class of penalties of which dissenters complain is, their exclusion from all interest in the wealth and temporal privileges of the endowed sect. The ecclesiastical revenues of the three kingdoms may be rated at the annual value of twelve millions.* A part of this sum, at least, was appropriated to its present or a similar purpose out of national property, by the prerogative of the crown, or by the decisions of parliament. It is in every sense, therefore, an annual grant from the nation; and yet in the offices amongst which it is distributed, the dissenter, however pious or talented, can have no share. Because he cannot conscientiously subscribe, it is decreed he shall never be promoted.

Or, to take an illustration more extensively applicable; it is notorious that, during the last few years, a sum of not less than two millions has been taken out of the public purse, and given towards the building of new churches for the worship and convenience of the endowed it has been taken out in money, and paid to the church-goers of the nation in mortar and stone. Now, if the dissenters are in number only one-half of the population of Great Britain and Ireland,—and on the lowest calculation they are a decided majority,they have paid, at least, one million for church-building alone, without any return; and just because they

* See note E.