^JBHriPIIl AID^©©^^35ID3 \ 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THE VRESBTTERIAJ^S 
 
 CO'M '■'VTS. 
 
 5 t^ 
 
 i.ETTEK I.— Calumny Refuted 5 
 LFiTTER 11. — Missionary and 
 
 Bible Societies '^>l 
 LETTER III.— Of Tresbytemn 
 
 D.ictrine . . ''55 
 LETTER IV.— Presbyterian 
 
 Practice . * 83 
 
 LETTER v.— Tlie same sub 
 ject r.or tinned 
 
 L"ETTeB VL— Of' Compelkti- 
 on &. Titles— 
 Of Worship^ 
 The Sabbath-- 
 Of Oaths—War iJi 
 
 BY VINDEX 
 
 Every one that doeth evil hateth the Ught, neither cometii to the 
 U^hf '**»'f Jii ipi'ds should be reproved. Jons iii. 20. 
 
 ft 
 
 PHILArtELPUi f 
 
 ^^ Printed arid sold by Joseph Rakestrnw, No. 2^4; 
 North Tiiit Street. 
 
 '%AA ^'^A ^/V\ 'VXrv "V^^ '%AA 'VX'X -^ 
 
 » ^'W>.^AM'X^'««^A«. * 
 
 ■fi^il^',]^^r,!^P3?; 
 
 
 it 
 
2:^ 5::i 5:=^ i^ .£^ i:^. "^2- 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 SAMUEL AGNE\V, 
 
 OF P H r LADE LPHI A , PA. 
 
 04^0. 
 
 /h/c^iyi/cJ^y /(!^r£^§^tr ' 
 
 
 Cane, Division -(|.L 
 
 SJieJf\Sec^Jr" ._i 
 
 
TRUTH ADVOCATED: 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THIi P13lIi^l&l.TE^lAK^. 
 
 BY VINDEX. 
 
 fcvety one tliat tloeth evil hateth the light, neitlier cometh to the 
 light lest his deeds should be reproved. .Tohn iii. 20, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PRINTED Br JOSEPH BAKESTBAW, JTO. 254, XOnTH THIRD STBEET. 
 
 1822, 
 
IN the Christian Repository, a paper published in Wilming- 
 ton, Delaware, a writer under the signature of Paul, has 
 attacked the religious society of Friends. He has been an- 
 swered by a member of that society, under the title of Ami- 
 cus. After what has been done in our defence, it would 
 seem to be a work of supererogation to add any thing 
 further. But the reader, if he has perused those publications* 
 will perceive that I have here replied to charges, which Amicus 
 from their multiplicity has been obliged to pass over in silence; 
 and when I have taken up the same subjects which Amicus has 
 noticed, I have treated them differently. I do not mean by 
 this to be understood as depreciating the labours of that writer. 
 The ability and temper with which he has managed his side of 
 the controversy, against a very unfair antagonist, will, I think, 
 be generally acknowledged : I do not intend, therefore, to 
 occupy his ground. Be his the task of continuing to expose the 
 sophistry of the author^ mine to unfold the character of the 
 man: and whilst Amicus leaves him in his mask, 1 shall un- 
 cover him and present him before the public as a Presbyterian 
 minister. 
 
 The assault made by this writer, being supported by no kind 
 of evidence, yet seasoned by the coarsest and most virulent 
 abuse, when viewed in the abstract, calls for no further ani- 
 madversion. But I have been induced to notice it, under a 
 belief that it constitutes an entering wedge, prej»aratory to a 
 more extensive field of operations, before which all opposition to 
 the ambitious views of a hireling priesthood^ is to be prostrated. 
 And I think I shall be able to present to the impartial reader, 
 in these letters, no slender evidence that this belief arises nei- 
 ther from invidious feelings, nor an overweening credulity. 
 
 The Author. 
 Wilmington, Del. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTERS I. & n, 
 CALUM^^V REFUTED. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 PRESBFTEEMJV JJOCTRUVE. 
 
 LETTERS IV. & V. 
 PRESBFTERMJy PRACTICE. 
 
TRUTH ADVOCATED, &c. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Tantssne animis cmlestibiis irx ? 
 
 Can heaveiily minds such anger entertain ? 
 
 IT is now nearly two centuries since the people called 
 Quakers first appeared in England. The testimonies which 
 they publicly bore against a corrupt hireling priesthood; 
 against oaths, war, and other legalized but anti-christian prac- 
 tices, often brought them in contact with the priests and ma- 
 gistrates of that and other countries, where they attempted to 
 promulgate their doctrines. A cruel persecution was thus 
 excited against them, which continued in varied degrees of 
 violence for more than half a century, to which they submitted 
 with great patience and fortitude ; but without yielding one 
 inch of ground, or commuting one article of their faith, to 
 obtain from their enemies an alleviation of their sufferings. 
 Hence, there exists no sect in Christendom whose principles 
 have been more frequently attacked, nor more ably or success- 
 fully defended, than those of the Quakers, Like the unadul- 
 terated steel, their doctrine has shone the brighter by attrition ; 
 and although, like the holy Apostle, they have had to contend 
 with wild and ferocious beasts in the shape of men,* yet they 
 have in every instance, left the field triumphant, confirming 
 the truth of the old adage, 
 
 JUagna est veritas et prevalebit. 
 Trutli is great and will prevail . 
 
 Amongst the many attacks, originating in bigotry and priest- 
 craft, and levelled at dissenters from your creed, I have seen 
 none more replete with falsities, more gross in calumny, nor in 
 abuse more virulent, than that contained in the Christian Re- 
 pository, one of your periodical works, published in this place. 
 Availing himself of the advantage of a mask^ this v riter had 
 
 ♦ If the reader should deem this expression too strong-, let him read the 
 cruelties committed in Boston by the " pilgrims." 
 
6 
 
 cherished more than a hope, that if he should not succeed in 
 the full accomplishment of his object, that of prostrating the 
 opposition of the Quakers to the extension of clerical influence 
 and power, he would at least procure to himself the satisfaction 
 of arousing the prejudices of a certain class against them. 
 And he foresaw, should he be exposed as a defamer, yet, as an 
 individual, he would escape, personally, public indignation, by 
 having written under a borrowed character. 
 
 Every impartial reader, I feel assured, will find in the man- 
 ner of Paul's assault, a sufficient justification for bringing him 
 before the public in his sable dress. When a writer, under 
 cover, attacks individual character, public opinion demands 
 the name of the author. Between this and the case 1 am 
 treating, there are many points of strong resemblance. Paiti 
 has attempted, by falsehood and calumny, (as I shall abund- 
 antly prove) to unchristianize a whole religious community, 
 and to bring odium upon them from all quarters ; he has, more- 
 over, in a manner higldy reprehensible, alluded to certain 
 individuals of that society. But Paul tells us that he is so 
 «* conscious of the purity of his motives," and of the ** justice 
 of his cause," that were it not for the fear of being reputed 
 ** ostentatious," he would " have no objection to subscribe his 
 name in fuW to his numhers. Now, after such an avowal, 
 should my remarks lead to a developement, he certainly will 
 have no reason to complain. 
 
 Believing, therefore, that it is in this case, of no little im- 
 portance to the cause of trtith, to identify the man, whilst ex- 
 posing the deformity of the author^ you cannot, I presume, be 
 ignorant that the public have suspected a certain minister of 
 one of your congregations, as being the principal source of that 
 muddy stream which has so long polluted the columns of the 
 Christian Repository. Without entering into a detail of evi- 
 dence, I think I have some reason to concur with public senti- 
 ment on this point ; and believing that many of you feel a lively 
 interest in the success of every attempt to put down opposition 
 to the growth of a homogeneous hifiuence in these United States, 
 I therefore address to you these letters. 
 
 How far your new " defender of the faith" has succeeded in 
 realizing the fond expectations, which in the onset of this con- 
 troversy, fired his zeal and spurred him forward — how far his 
 efforts will tend to extend the «< homogeneous influence," time 
 will discover. If detailing the most palpable untruths, and 
 indulging in the coarsest strain of vituperation against a re- 
 spectable religious society ; — if, in short, exhibiting an over- 
 flowing effervescence of the gall of bitterness — of passions 
 fitted to disturb the peace and harmony of civil and religious 
 
communities, can stamp the seal of a gospel commission, — con 
 fer honour, and exalt character, then may your minister retire 
 from the contest with the answer of a good conscience. 
 
 I now proceed to state the grounds of these strictures, and 
 if J should fail to convince you of their justice, the cause must 
 be sought for in my incapacity to unfold, or in your unwilling- 
 ness to admit, the ample fund of evidence which lays hefore me. 
 
 1 shall quote the charges preferred against the Society of 
 Friends, as they are found in the paper, and demonstrate their 
 falsity by extracts from such of our writers as are of acknow- 
 ledged merit ; confining myself' to such books as your minister 
 has repeatedly told us he had read, and which are in his posses- 
 sion. And, although I am deprived of an important advantage, 
 by thus confining myself to three or four, when I might refer 
 to fifty volumes ; yet, in making this sacrifice of such a valua- 
 ble mass of authority, one important point is gained ; your 
 minister is thereby excluded from putting in the plea ofignO' 
 ranee, 
 
 1 commence with his charges made against the Society, and 
 grounded on their alleged views of 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Charge I.— « Ton undervalue the scriptures — take from them 
 every honorable epithet, such as the gospel, revelation, word of 
 God, law and testimony ; you treat them as a half inspired 
 allegory — and as a corrupted, ill-authenticated, falsely render- 
 edf uncertain piece of human composition," — Christian Reposi- 
 tory, Nos. 40 and 46. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 " I do freely concede to the scriptures whatsoever they say 
 of themselves, which the Apostle Paul chiefly mentions in two 
 places : * Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were 
 written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort 
 of the scriptures, might have hope.' * The holy scriptures are 
 able to make wise unto salvation, through faith which is in 
 Christ Jesus.' « All scripture is given by inspiration of God.'" 
 Barclay's Apology, p. 97. Bare. Conf. of Faith. Art. III. 
 
 « We affirm that the scriptures give a full and ample testimony 
 to all the principal doctrines of the christian faith." B. Ap. 
 p. 105. 
 
 «« From the revelations oHhe spirit of God to the saints have 
 proceeded the scriptures." B. Ap. p. 81. 
 
 « Respecting the scriptures, we are so far from lessening them, 
 or opposing the true sense of them, that we verily believe, and 
 sincerely assert, that the holy spirit, in what degree of illumi- 
 
illation soever it appears, never can contradict them.''' PhippSy 
 Original and Present State of Man, p. il7. 
 
 " 'J'lie scriptures were written by inspiration, and must be in^ 
 fallible.''' Phipps, p. 123. 
 
 *< We have sometimes been accused of allegorizing away the 
 truths of the cliristian religion, as recorded in holy writ : it is 
 far, very far from our intention or inclination. We never 
 preach a Christ within, opposed to, or derogating from a Christ 
 Tvithout." Fothergill's Sermons, p. 133. 
 
 In addition to the above, it may be added, that in our Disci- 
 pline and Queries, these records are styled *« the holy scrip- 
 tures," and by the authors above quoted, they are called the 
 sacred oracles of truth, the holy scriptures, holy writ, sacred 
 records, and in many places the gospel. Vid. B. Ap. pp. 97, 
 117, 182, 223. Phipps, pp. 98, 139,140. Fothergill, pp. 
 101, 116. 
 
 The foregoing extracts, to which might be added many more 
 of like import, are made from books which your minister has 
 told the public he has " repeatedly read ;" yet he asserts that 
 we " take from the scriptures every honorable epithet ; as reve^ 
 lation, gospel, &c. and treat them as n falsely rendered, corrupt- 
 ed, uncertain piece of human composition /" If what is exhibited 
 in these pages, be a good specimen of the kind of <• moral 
 influence exerted in society" by " poor, pious young men," 
 w^hen transformed into " educated ministers," I think they 
 had much better be left at home to pursue their humble, but 
 honest avocations ! 
 
 . Charge II. — <' Instead of trying the spirit by the scriptures, you 
 try the scriptures by the spirit.'' Chris. Repos. No. 6. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 « We do look upon the scriptures as the only fit outward rule 
 to judge of controversies among christians; and that whatso- 
 ever doctrine is contrary to their testimony, may, therefore, justly 
 be rejected as false. We shall also be very willing to admit it 
 as a positive, certain maxim, that whatsoever any do, pretend- 
 ing to the spirit, which is contrary to the scriptures, be accounted 
 and reckoned a delusion of the devil." B. Ap. p. 100. 
 
 « Our opposers call the scripture the primary rule. We allow 
 it to be the primary written rule, and in all disputes between 
 them and us, we abide by its decision, according to our under^ 
 standing of the sense of it." Phipps, p. 127. 
 
 " For we do firmly believe that there is no other gospel or 
 doctrine to be preached, but that which was delivered by the 
 
apostles, and do freely subserilie to that saying — Let him who 
 preachf^th any uther .e;ospel than that which hath been already 
 pr<'ached by the apostles, and according to the scriptures, be 
 accursed J' B. Ap. p. 105. 
 
 " So we distinguish betwixt a revelation of a new gospel, 
 and n^'w doctrines, and a new revelation of the ^ood oW ,§"os- 
 pel and doctrines : the last we plead for, but thejirst we utterly 
 deny. For we firmlv believe that » no other foundation can any 
 man lay than that which is laid already.' " ibid. 
 
 Charge III. — « Tour doctrine leads you to question the authen- 
 ticity and correctness of our copy of the Bible." 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 Every one the least acquainted with biblical history knows^ 
 that the correctness of the present translation in common use, 
 has been called in question by many great and pious men, of 
 almost every denomination ; and several attempts have been 
 made to introduce a new translation. — The attempt, then, to 
 fix a reproach on this account, upon the Society of Friends, 
 exclusively, is, in the highest degree unjust : but the charge 
 is. as applied by the author, substantially false, as appears by 
 the following quotations. 
 
 " The errors which may be supposed by the injury of time, 
 to have slipt in, are not such, but that there is a sufficient clear 
 testimony left to all the essentials of the Christian faith." B, 
 Ap. p. too. 
 
 ** We never compared the scriptures to a mutilated and dim 
 copy ; they are a clear and perfect copy as to all essentials and 
 necessaries of the Christian religion." B. Works, p. 603. 
 
 See also Barclay's Catechism, wherein every answer is 
 formed out of quotations from ♦' our copy of the Bible," with- 
 out the least alteration — ^a sufficient and ample evidence, if 
 there was no other, how highly we esteem those writings ; all 
 our doctrines being either founded on, or entirely agreeing 
 with them, in every important point, according to the sense 
 which we have of their import. 
 
10 
 
 Charge IV.— « Vou exclude the Sacred volume from your places 
 of worship — qiiote it as you would any other authentic /tis- 
 toryi'* &c. No. 40. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 In the foregoing charge we are said to question the authen- 
 ticity of the Bible ; but here the reader is told that we quote 
 it as ** authentic^' ! and if we quote it in our places of worship, 
 how can we be said to exclude it ? It is true we do not carry 
 the book to our meetings, as is the practice with others; 
 but passages from it are very often quoted, not as any other 
 <* authentic history," but in a weighty and impressive man- 
 ner, to illustrate and confirm some point of doctrine ; to raise 
 the drooping spirits by its blessed promises, or to awaken the 
 careless by its awful annunciations. — Thus, by referring to 
 Fothergill's Sermons, the reader will find no less than thirty- 
 nine passages of sacred writ, impressively introduced into one 
 discourse ; yet with this book in his hand, your minister brings 
 this charge against us ! What then do we exclude ? The 
 paper, ink and binding only. I appeal to all who are in the 
 liabit of attending the meetings of the Quakers, if their com- 
 munications are not replete with Scripture passages^ quoted in 
 such a weighty and reverent manner, and so strikingly adapt- 
 ed to the occasion, as is well calculated to infuse a high respect 
 and veneration in the hearers, for those sacred records : and 
 all will bear me witness, to what miserable sophistry, to what 
 ignoble means, this invidious author descends^ in order to 
 Yilify and cast an odium upon this people. 
 
 Charge V. — ''Four dortrine leads yo%i to neglect the Scriptures,*^ 
 Sfc. " You make little use of the Bible further than it suits 
 your purpose" Nos. 42, 44. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 ** They (the Quakers) give such preference to the Scriptures 
 above all other writings, that they strictly press the frequent 
 reading of them, and call for answers from each monthly meet- 
 
 * Your minister says in No. 48, " I receive the Bible, therefore, as au- 
 thentic, as I receive the Works of Barclay or of Penn, not by * immediate reve- 
 lation,' but by atrain of historical evidence." 
 
 Now as this writer ranks his faith in the Scriptures on no higher ground than 
 " a train of historical evidence," I presume he must, to be consistent, quote it 
 as he would the "Works of Barclay or of Penn," or " any other authentic 
 history. Here he turns his back on hts own creed. Vid. ch. 1. 5 & 6 of the 
 Presb. Conf, of Faith. 
 
11 
 
 iiig, at every quarterly meeting throughout the society, and at 
 the general yearly meeting in London, from every particular 
 quarterly meeting, * whether the HoJy Scriptures are constantly 
 read in their families or not.' " Phipps, p. 155. 
 
 This practice still maintains throughout the society, and 
 however the different yearly meetings on this continent may 
 differ in minor points of discipline, (for they are independent 
 of each other,) yet on this subject their practice is constant and 
 Uniform. See the printed Discipline. 
 
 To the above, respecting the Scriptures, I may add, 
 
 1. That we do not give to them the title of " the word of 
 God," because " the word of God was made flesh" (John i. 
 and 1st) — came to Shemaiah, to Nathan, to John in the wilder- 
 ness — mightily grew and prevailed (Acts, xix.20)— is called the 
 sword of the spirit (Eph* vi. 17.)— is quick and powerful (Heb. 
 iv. 12.)— ^By it the worlds were framed (Heb. xi. 3.) — By it the 
 heavens were of old. (2 Peter iii. 5) — It abideth in man. (1 John 
 ii. 14.) — And he who sat on the white horse, in the revelations, 
 was called <' the word of God."* Now, as none of these 
 things can be aflirmed of the sacred writings, we give and apply 
 this title exclusively to Christ. 
 
 2. That although we do not withhold from the Scripture the 
 appellation of «< gospel," as your minister has falsely asserted, 
 yet we do believe that this term more properly belongs to the 
 universal and saving grace or spirit of God. Thus the gospel 
 is called the power of God unto salvation — is said to have been 
 preached in every creature ; and rpeached to Abraham ; (Gal. 
 iii. 8.) none of which can be affirmed of the outward gospel. 
 (Vid. Barclay^ p. 182.) 
 
 3. We do not hold them to be the solt, primary^ and universai 
 director in religious faith and practice ; for 
 
 " 1. They are not the sole director, liecause the spirit of God 
 in the heart and conscience of man is also an undeniable 
 director. 
 
 « 2. They are not the primary director, because the illumina- 
 tion of the holy Spirit that gave them forth, is requisite to open 
 the true sense of them. The Spirit also from which the Scrip- 
 tures came, is original and therefore primary to them ; and as 
 the Spirit only can open its own ti'ue sense iiicludtd in them, 
 they are secondary to the Spirit, as an instrument in its hand. 
 
 « 3. They are not the universal director becausfi it is not 
 probable that one in ten, if one in twenty of mankind, have 
 
 ♦ By referring to the New Testament, the reader will find numerous other 
 passages, in confirmation of the position, that the " word of God" applies to 
 that divine principle, spirit, power, or Logos, as the prime author and dictator 
 of the Scriptures, and not the Scriptures themselves. 
 
12 
 
 ever had the opportunity of possessing them. Hence we esteem 
 them the secondary rule or guide of Christians, which being 
 divinely communicated for the use of all to whom they may 
 come ; and also being intrinsically superior in excell' nee to all 
 other writings, we prefer them above all others, and as thank- 
 fully accept and as comfortably use them, as any people upon 
 earth ; verily believing with the holy apostle, • that they were 
 written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort 
 of the Scriptures, might have hope.' But the Holy Spirit is 
 requisite to the right use of them, (see your own Confession of 
 Faith) as the agent to the instrument ; and what is an instru- 
 ment without a hand to guide and enforce it? The Scriptures 
 themselves abundantly testify, there is something superior to 
 them, which all ought to look for and attend unto ; i. e. the 
 Supreme Legislator of men, and prime author of the sacred 
 writings ; and by whose light and power theyare made instru- 
 mentally useful and adequate to the purposes intended by them. 
 Like a good sun-dial, they are true and perfect in their kind, 
 i. e. as writings ; but respecting the parts differently understood, 
 they may justly bear the same motto with the dial, non sine 
 Lumine: for as the dial without the cast of the sun-beams has 
 not its proper use to tell the time of the day, neither doth the 
 ambiguous text answer its true end, infallibly to communicate 
 the mind of the Holy Spirit to different understandings, except 
 the luminous beams of the Sun of Righteousness discover it to 
 the attentive mind." — Vid. Phipps, p. 126. 
 
 Notwithstanding that you, as well as others, have east much 
 obloquy upon the Quakers, for denying that the Scriptures are 
 the only and primary rule of faith and practice ; yet in chap. 
 1 and 5 of the Confession of Faith, we find the same opinion 
 very clearly and fully expressed as follows : 
 
 « Our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth 
 and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, is from the inward 
 work of the holy spirit bearing witness, by and with the word in 
 our hearts" 
 
 Now, I ask, how can that which does not convey to the mind 
 a *' full assurance and persuasion of its truth," be a sivfficieniy 
 primary, and adequate rule ? And is not this holy Spirit, which 
 you thus acknowledge to be absolutely necessary to open and 
 explain the true meaning of these w ritings, to be esteemed pri- 
 mary to them ? — A certain master orders his servant to write a 
 letter of instructions to his people, who after having read it, 
 are not fully assured either of its true meaning, «* truth," or 
 « authority i" would you esteem it then an adequate and suffi- 
 cient rule for these people to act upon ?— You have declared 
 
13 
 
 above that it is not. Being thus uncertain of the master's will, 
 they apply to him for further explanations : (and you, in like 
 manner, apply to the master by prayer to open the Scriptures 
 to you) which, therefore, ought in this case to be taken as pri- 
 mary and adequate, the master or the letter which he had dic- 
 tated ? in your controversial writings, you assert that this let- 
 ter is primary and adequate, but in your confession and in your 
 practice, you accept it as secondary only. How is this double- 
 dealing and contradiction to be explained ? 
 
 ** We distinguish,'* says Barclay, *' betwixt a revelation of 
 a new gospel and new doctrines, and a new revelation of the 
 good old gospel and doctrine^ the last we plead for, but thejirst 
 we utterly deny ; for we firmly believe, that *< no other founda- 
 tion can any man lay, than that wiiich is laid already." p. 105. 
 
 In your Confession of Faith above quoted, you, in like man- 
 ner, plead for this new revelation of the " good old gospel and 
 doctrines,'' as necessary to give «* a full assurance and persua- 
 sion of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof." Can 
 you reconcile this with your constant declarations that revela- 
 tion has now ceased ? 
 
 I have thus, I think, sufficiently proved, that your doctrine 
 with respect to the Holy Scriptures, is ct)ntradictory in itself: 
 and by the foregoing quotations from Barclay and Phipps, it is 
 rendered manifest that the charges of your minister against the 
 Quakers, on this subject^ are not lesis invidious than destitute- 
 of truth. 
 
 INTERNAL LIGHT. 
 
 Your minister labors to impress upon the minds of his readers 
 the false idea, that the doctrine of m^ernaHi^/if, as held by the 
 Quakers, has had its origin in, and is almost peculiar to that 
 people 5 hence he says, 
 
 Charge VI. — " We oppose what you call internal light, as a 
 pretender^ impostor, and usurper^ whom your Society and others 
 have set up in opposition to the Spirit." No. 44. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 The doctrine of internal light is as old as the Bible, and il 
 the reader will refer to Cruden's Concordance, he will find 
 this <' impostor'* referred to in that volume, in nearly one hun- 
 dred places, and described as a universal, divine, internal 
 saving principle. I will quote a few passages .— 
 
14: 
 
 '• The Lord is my liejlit and my salvation.— Light is sown fot* 
 the righteous. — God is the Lord who has sh' wed us light. — If 
 tliey speak not according to this word, it is because there is no 
 light in them. — The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light. 
 Light and understanding was found in Daniel.— In him was 
 life and tlie life was the light of men — that was the true light, 
 which lighteneth etJcr^ man.— Every one that doeth evil hateth 
 the light — but he that doeth truth cometh to the light— he that 
 followeth me shall have the light of life. — He stumbleth because 
 there is no light in him. — While ye have the light, believe in 
 the. light. — He who commanded the light to shine out of dark- 
 ness, hath shined in our hearts. — All things that are reproved, 
 are made manifest by the light. — Who called you into his mar- 
 vellous light. — To which ye do well to take heed as to a light 
 shining in a dark place. — God is light." 
 
 The ftdlowing quotation will show what the Quakers under- 
 stand by this light : 
 
 ** By this seed, grace, and word of God, ajidlight wherewith 
 we say every one is enlightened, and hath a measure of it, 
 which strives with him in order to save him, we understand, a 
 spiritual, heavenly, and invisible principle, in which God, as 
 Father, Son, and Spirit dwells ; a measure of which divine and 
 glorious life is in all men as a seed, which, of its own nature, 
 draws, invites, and inclines to God. It is styled in Scripture, 
 light, grace, a measure of the Spirit, the word of God, a talent, 
 a little leaven, the gospel preached in every creature, the Com- 
 forter, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Ghost, the sent of the Fa- 
 ther in the name of Christ." B. Apology, pp. 146, 1 61, 1 52, 54. 
 
 The reader will perceive by this quotation, that the Quakers 
 consider internal light, as only another name for the grace of 
 God. the Spirit, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. Where may 
 we expect to find limits to our accuser's aberrations from 
 truth and fair dealing, when, with Barclay before him, he as- 
 serts, that internal light, as held by the Quakers, *' is a pre- 
 tender, impostor and usurper, which they have set up in opposition 
 to ih^ Spirit** 1 1 
 
 Notwithstanding the war which you are waging against this 
 doctrine o^ internal light, yet we find an open avowal of it in 
 your Confession of Faith, in the following words : " We ac- 
 knowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be 
 necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are 
 revealed in the word"* / And your minister himself, after 
 abusing the Quakers with his usual liberality, for maintaining^ 
 
 * Ch»p. i. * 
 
15 
 
 this doctrine, both ancient and new, of internal tight, comes to 
 this confession at last : " That there is such a thing as internal 
 liglit, has never been denied by us."* I 
 
 The next subjects on which your minister has rendered him 
 self conspicuous for his imputations, are the evil of sin, and the 
 divinity and atonement of Christ. 
 
 1. THE EVIL OF SIN. 
 
 Charge VII.— »* Vou depreciate the evil of sin — you reject the doc- 
 trine of total depravity, Ji man may read one thousand pages 
 of your writings, attend your meetings for years, he will hear 
 little of the infinite evil of sin," ^c. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 "We that were lost in Adam, plunged into the bitter and 
 corrupt seed, unable of ourselves to do any good thing, but 
 naturally joined and united to evil, forward and propense to all 
 iniquity ; servants and slaves to the power and spirit of dark- 
 ness," &c. B. Ap. p. 218. 
 
 ** All Adam*8 posterity, or mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, 
 as to the first Adam, or earthly man, is fallen, degenerated, and 
 dead ; subject unto the power, nature and seed of the serpent, 
 which he soweth in men*8 hearts, while they abide in this na- 
 tural and corrupted state ; from whence it comes that not only 
 their words and deeds, but all their imaginations are evil per- 
 petually in the sight of God. Man, therefore, as he is in this 
 state, can know nothing aright. Hence are rejected the Socinian 
 and Pelagian errors, in exalting a natural light." Vid. Bar- 
 clay from page 108 to 122. 
 
 " In this situation, commonly called the state of nature, we arc 
 both unfit for and unable to enter the Heavenly kingdom, 
 which admits of nothing sinful or unclean. It is therefore ab- 
 solutely requisite that man should be made holy in order to be 
 happy. If pollution can cleanse itself, if evil can produce 
 good, if death can bring forth life ; man thus corrupted, debili- 
 tated and deadened, may disengage, reform, quicken, and re- 
 store himself. But it is not in the power of man, as such, to 
 extricate himself from the power of sin and death. Yet, as 
 impurity is the bar, it must be removed ; as sin separates man 
 from his maker, man must be separated from sin, or he cannot 
 be reconciled and united to him." Phipps, p. 20. 
 
 ♦ Christ. Repos. No. S8. 
 
16 
 
 »• It is an endless commandment, and can never be abrogated, 
 tiiat the soul that sins it shall die, and it remains over the heads 
 of all mankind, who yield themselves to present pleasures, and 
 give up their minds to follow after lying vanities : but I would 
 caution these not to be deceived, for God is not mocked.** Foth. 
 p. 172. 
 
 " The righteous God has fixed as an invariable decision, that 
 if ive sow to the Jlesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption." 
 Foth. p. 176. 
 
 I think the reader wiU excuse me from making further quo- 
 tations on this point. If he will consult the above three vo- 
 lumes, he will find something in almost every page, setting forth 
 the evil of sin. 
 
 2. THE DIVINITY AND ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 
 Charge VHI. — " Yon depreciate the valne of the atonement. 
 The God you worship is not the God of Israel, but the idol of the 
 deist, dressed up with a few christian features. After hearing 
 your preachers, reading ijour books, conversing with your 
 people, and observing your conduct for many years, I do sin- 
 cerely believe, as I kvflw the greatest and best men in our couU' 
 try believe, that Friendism is a specious kind of infidelity, a 
 spurious Christianity, a graft of deism on the gospel stock. 
 You reduce the bea^itiful system of Christ and his apostles to 
 something little differing from that of Socrates and Cicero, — 
 Nos. 4<3, 36, 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 <« We consider our redemption in a two-fold respect. 1st, 
 rhat performed by Christ in his crucified body without us, by 
 which, as we stand in the fall, we are put in a capacity of sal- 
 vation, and have conveyed unto us a measure of that power, 
 virtue, spirit, life and grace that was in Christ Jesus, which, 
 as the free gift of God is able to counterbalance, overcome and 
 root out the evil seed, wherewith we are naturally, as in the 
 fall, leavened. The 2d, is that whereby we witness and know 
 this pure and perfect redemption in ourselves, purifying, cleans- 
 ing, and redeeming us from the power of corruption, and bring- 
 ing us into unity, favour, and friendship with God. 
 
 We are so far reconciled to God by the death of his Son 
 while enemies, that we are put into a capacity of salvation, 
 liaving the glad tidings of the gospel of peace offered unto us, 
 and God is reconciled unto us in Christ, calls and invites us to 
 himself, in whjeh respect we understood these scriptures : 
 « He slew the enmity in himself. He loved us first ; seeing us 
 in our blood, he said unto us, live. He who did not sin his own 
 
17 
 
 self, bare our sins in his own body on tlie tree ; and he died for 
 our sins, the just for the unjust." B. Ap. p. 218. 
 
 " Christ is the eternal word. No creature hath access to God 
 but by him. He is the mediator. He is both God and man. 
 By his sacrifice we have remission of sins. By his life, death 
 and sufferings, he hath opened a way for reconciliation. His 
 obedience, righteousness, death and sufferings, are ours." B. 
 Ap. pp. 40, 41, 42, 155, 197, 198, 217, 220, 240, 241, 242. See 
 the index to the Apology, where under the word Redemption^ 
 we are referred to fifty different places in the work. 
 
 « We believe the remission of sins which any partake of, is 
 only in and by virtue of that most satisfactory sacrifice, and 
 no otherwise." B. Ap. p. 155. 
 
 " Perfect redemption consists, first, in paying the price of ran- 
 som ; and second, in bringing out of bondage and setting the 
 prisoner at liberty. Our Saviour paid the first by his suffering 
 and sacrifice, and he performs the last, by the effectual opera- 
 tion of his spirit in the hearts of those who re«eive him, and 
 resign wholly to him." Phipps, p. 20. 
 
 " God out of his infinite love, who delighteth not in the death 
 of a sinner, but that all should live and be saved, hatii so loved 
 the world, that he hath given his only son a light, that whoso- 
 ever believeth in him shall be saved. Nor is this liglit lesi 
 universal than the seed of sin, being the purchase of his death, 
 < who tasted death for every man :' ' For as in Adam all die, 
 so in Christ all shall be made alive.' " B. Ap. p. 122. 
 
 "This doctrine (the offer of universal redemption) is abund- 
 antly confirmed by that of the apostle : ' and if any man sin. 
 Me have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righte- 
 ous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours 
 only, but for the sins of the whole rvorld.' " B. Ap. p. 137. 
 
 I refer the reader to the Apology, where he will find the uni- 
 versal light or grace of God, as manifested througli Jesus 
 Christ, and indeed the whole plan of redemption as revealed in 
 Scripture, and as believed on by the Quakers, fully treated of 
 from page 123 to 212, almost one hundred pages being devoted 
 to this grand corner stone of the Christian system. This, added 
 to what I have quoted from him on the subject, shows the ample, 
 clear, and explicit manner in which he has opened our views of 
 tlie gospel plan of salvation. Yet, notwithstanding all this, 
 your minister without respect to truth or candour, and yielding 
 to his propensity for calumny, asserts with shameless effron- 
 tery, that <* on the great doctrine of the Atonement, Bar- 
 clay has observed a silence irreconcilable with christian frankness 
 and honest dealing.''^ ('Yid. Rcpos. vol. II. No. 9.) 1 will close 
 
16 
 
 this article by making a few quotations from Fothergill's 
 Sermons 
 
 «* I am no Arian, far from it. I believe in the clear emphatic 
 testimonies laid down in Holy Writ, ' that Christ was more 
 than a prophet.' i repeat m.v belief, that he suffered, died, 
 ascended, and is now come » the second time without sin unto 
 salvation, in order to reconeile the world unto himself.' How- 
 ever this doctrine may relish with some, 1 am convinced he 
 died for all, that all should be saved, that through him we 
 might be justified in the sight of God; that we might put on 
 the Lord Jesus, with all his divine affections. That they which 
 live » should not henceforth live to themselves, but to him who 
 died for them and rose again.' That there may be an effectual 
 redemption, a thorough change ; not the imputation of righte- 
 ousness without works, but a real substantial righteousness, in 
 h^-art and life, which may operate upon and regulate the mind 
 and will, and lead us to a conformity to his Divine nature ; not a 
 righteousness imputed to us from what Christ did and suffered 
 without uSf but a righteousness raised hijhim wif/iiniis, through 
 our surrendering ourselves to his government, and yielding 
 entire submission to his heart-cleansing, refining power." 
 Page 36. 
 
 *' Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica-« 
 tion and redemption." Page 37. 
 
 *» By virtue of that Holy sacrifice the remission of sins is 
 gained. We believe that he who was crucified, dead and bu- 
 ried, likewise triumphed over the grave, and now sitteth at the 
 right hand of God, in a glorified body, to make intercession 
 for man." Page o5. 
 
 I have not room, nor do I think it necessary to make further 
 quotations on this head. If any reader should still doubt, let 
 him refer to the originals ; let him read Penn, Story, White- 
 head, Boroughs, Sewel, Gough, and twenty other writers whom 
 I ( )uld name, and which he will find in *« Friends' library of 
 Wilmington ;" he will then be convinced of the groundless na- 
 ture, both of the foregoing charges, and of the following as- 
 sertions : 
 
 * *' On the all important topics of the character of God, the na- 
 ture and offices of Christ, the work of the spirit, the way of salva- 
 tion, and in general, the grand essentials of Christianity, you hide 
 •yourselves in a cloud of mysticism, leaving us to guess at your 
 
 * See the index to Bare. Ap. wherein references are made to the body of 
 the work as follows .- 19 references respecting God ; 37 on Christ ; 41 on the 
 Spirit ; 50 on Redemption ; 36 on the Scriptures ; and on Sin, are re- 
 ferences under different heads, to nearly half the pages in the book. See 
 also Phipps, from page 1 to 83. 
 
19 
 
 iloctrines.—'Ji man may read one thousand pages ofyoiir writings^ 
 attend your nudingsjor years, he will hear little of the iajinite evil 
 of .I?', the holiness aiid justice of God, the need of a vicarious 
 atonement, the total depravity of the natural heart, the import- 
 ance of the Scriptures, the Divinity of Christ, and future, ever- 
 lasting punishment. These are topics seldom or never touched." 
 Christ. Repos. No. 32. 
 
 Charge IX. — « Fou reject the Scriptural doctrine of the Re- 
 surrection." No. 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 " There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and 
 the unjust. They that have done good unto the resurrection of 
 life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of dam- 
 nation Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; 
 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption ; nor is that body 
 sown that shall be, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased 
 him. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption ; it is 
 sown in weakness, it is raised in power : it is sown a natural 
 body, it is raised a spiritual body." Bare. Conf. of Faith. 
 Article XXIII. 
 
 Chakge X. — " Fou all agree in fixing a limit to the miseries 
 of the wicked in another world. I never yet saw or heard a 
 sentiment in your books, which implied your belief in eternal 
 condemnation. Fou reject everlasting punishment." Ch. Repos. 
 Nos. 44, 46. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 There will not be found one single expression, in the writings 
 of Barclay, Phipps, Fothergill, or in any of our approved wri- 
 ters, tending in the least to support this charge. To this, which 
 is of itself an ample refutation, I will add the following posi- 
 tive testimonies : 
 
 " To those who by patient continuing in well doing have 
 sought the glory of God, their own salvation and the good of 
 others, immortality and eternal life : but to those who have con- 
 tinned in disobedience and rebellicm against G.id, tribulation, 
 and anguish, both inexpressible and interminable." Phipps, 
 page 89. 
 
so 
 
 i'lt is manifest the death denounced in Ezekiel xviii. 33. is 
 not the common death of the body ; for in that respect one event 
 happcneth to the righteous and the wicked, but that state of 
 everlasting infelicityf peculiar to those who go out of time into 
 eternity, without repentance and regeneration." Phipps, p. 105. 
 
 " Sucli as go no further than the outward knowledge of 
 Christ shall never inherit the kingdom of heaven." B. Ap. p. 189. 
 
 " I have beheld, on tlie other hand, the habitations of splen- 
 dour exhibit a mournful scene of distress — no hope of future 
 happiness afforded to the possessor ! But on the contrary, a 
 gloomy prospect of despair of an eternal state of misery.'^ Foth. 
 page 66. 
 
 Charge XI, — " You make every thing of conscience : set it up 
 as an infallible standard, an unerring counsellor.'''' 
 
 Charge XII. — " Another iiifidet doctrine is, that conscience is 
 the creature nf habit formed by education.^^ Nos. 7 and 12. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 These two accusations being opposite and contradictory one 
 to the other, destroy each other, and fall of course. Yet I may 
 briefly remark, that we view conscience as a natural faculty, 
 or organ of the soul, as the eye is a physical organ of the body ; 
 and as the eye is incapable of discerning outward objects 
 without the light of the natural sun, so conscience without the 
 illumination of the glorious sun of righteousness, cannot impart 
 to its possessor any correct impressions as to his moral or reli- 
 gious duties, or enable him to take one step forward himself, 
 or to lead another towards the heavenly Jerusalem. On this 
 subject, Barclay says, in pages 159, 160 : *' We do further, 
 rightly distinguish this (divine light) from man's natural con- 
 science ; for conscience being that in man which ariseth from 
 the natural faculties of man's soul, may be defiled and cor- 
 rupted. It is said expressly of the impure, Tit. i. 15. * that 
 even their mind and conscience are defiled ;' but this light can 
 never be corrupted nor defiled ; neither did it ever consent to 
 evil or wickedness in any ; for it is said expressly, that * it 
 makes all things manifest that are reproveable.' " Eph. v. 13. 
 
 That the conscience may become defiled and corrupted, we 
 have an evidence furnished by the author of these calumnies, 
 who, «* after much prayer and an anxious feeling after duty," 
 has been led, it would seem conscientiously, to assert the most 
 palpable untruths ! 
 
 Procul ! prpcul esto profani ! 
 
SI 
 
 Charge XIII. — **' Penitence for sin and gratitude for the dcatii uj 
 Christ, I Jind not in your writings, sermons, or prayers.*' — 
 No. 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 *« We are fully convinced of the doctrines of the Christian 
 religion ; the incarnation, glorious life, death, mighty niiia- 
 des, and various circumstances, relative to the liojy life of 
 Jesus, as in the volume of the book it is written ; and can in 
 an awful and reverent sense, commemorate those vast and most 
 interesting events. We admire with humble hearts and minds, 
 the awful transactions of that time, when sweat like drops of 
 blood ran from the face of the holy Jesus ! We behold him in 
 his agonies on Calvary's mount, offering himself a sacrifice for 
 the sins of the whole world, that he might purify us by tlie 
 shedding of his precious blood. We believe in his amazing 
 mercy in offering himself there ; when laden with the immense 
 weight of the sins of mankind, he was left to suffer alone ! 
 Here pause a little 1 beseech you ! Contemplate the adorable 
 theme ! ^Acknowledge man that unbounded gratitude which is 
 ever due from thee I my soul how much owest thou unto thy 
 Lord .'" — " Christ, who was < a friend to the publicans and 
 sinners,' is now become the rock of my salvation ; he hath 
 caused me to trust m him, and to seek the Lord my God. The 
 debt I owe is infinite. I desire ever to acknowledge it with all 
 possible gratitude.'* Foth. Sermons, pp. 33, 34', 41. 
 
 The same fervent strain of penitence and gratitude runs 
 through many parts of this volume ; see pages 19, 27 31, 37, 
 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, &c. &c. 
 
 ** Yet behold the astonishing compassion and kindness of infinite 
 goodness! An all-sufficient means was straightway provided for 
 the redemption of the actual offenders and all their progeny.'' 
 Phipps, page 15. 
 
 ** Our Saviour, therefore, by his sacrifice, manifested the 
 mercy, love, and kindness of God." Phipps, page 18 ; see also 
 pp. 25, 30, 31, 33, et al. 
 
 Charge XIV. — « Your prayers are just such as an honest ueist 
 would offer to his Creator and Preserver.** No. 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 *< Blot out all our transgressions, forgive us freely for thy 
 dear Son's sake» May the poor, the sick, the maimed, the 
 blind, and the naked, be clothed with the wedding garment — 
 the righteousness of their dear Saviour. To thee. Father of inG- 
 
as 
 
 nite mercy, for the multitude of thy mercies, in Jesus Christ 
 our Lordi to thee the author of everj"^ blessing, with the Son of 
 thy bosonif the Lamb immaculatef be all praise ascribed. To 
 thee with the immaculate Lamb, the Son of thy bosom^ be all 
 honour and glory ascribed. For thy great name's sake and 
 for thy dear Son's sake, remember the offspring of thy people. 
 Grant that whe7i he who is our life shall appear, we also may 
 appear with him hi glory." Fothergill, pp. 47, 49, 50, 73, 93, 
 94 ; see also 168, 160, 216. 
 
 Charge XV. — " Tlie volume (Fothergill) contains five long 
 prayers, they are made up of praise and thanksgiving, not for 
 Christ, however, but for temporal blessing and for internal 
 
 light." No. 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 From the expositions made in the foregoing pages, the reader 
 can scarcely be surprised at any thing your minister may as- 
 sert; but I think some additional feeling of disgust will be ex- 
 cited in this case, when I inform him, that in all those prayers, 
 the term " internal light" does not once occur, nor is there a 
 thanksgiving offered for a single temporal blessing I ! 
 
 That part of this charge which relates to Christ, is sufficiently 
 refuted in the foregoing article. 
 
 Charge XVI. — " In Fothergill* s Sermons I have looked invain 
 for the spirit of a penitent, or the faith of a believer.^' No. 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 " What do I owe to my God ! What do I not owe him ! He 
 hath snatched me as a brand out of the fire, and I would not, 
 though to gain the world, tre.ad back again in the path of folly. 
 Our sins have been great, and our transgressions never could 
 have been obliterated, had not Christ done it for us — but Christ 
 who was a friend to the publicans and sinners, is now become 
 the rock of my salvation ! He hath caused me to trust in him, 
 and to seek the Lord my God. The debt I owe is infinite. I 
 have no manner of doubt but he * whose work is salvation,' 
 who came into the world purely and purposely to save sinners, 
 will carry on his own work, as you wholly resign yourselves to 
 his forming hand ; will purify your hearts, reconcile you to the 
 Father, and make you everlasting instances and monuments 
 
' S3 
 
 •of his infinite mercy. Lift up therefore thy head in h6p( 
 whoever thou art, in this humbled penitent state, for * th> 
 salvation draweth nigh.' Thoti. owest abundance to thy Lord. 
 bui in this penitent state before him, he will blot out thy sins 
 as a cloudf and thy transgressions as a thick cloud," Foth. pp. 
 40 — 41. 
 
 *♦ O ! my soul forever acknowledge how much thou owest unto 
 thy Lord. Let none say * he hath blessed me variously and 
 in some future time I will awake my soul to gratitude,' " &c. 
 Page 43. 
 
 "But we are assured that nothing less than God himself is the 
 infinite and endless reward of all that diligently and constantly 
 seek him," &c. Page 56. 
 
 « I have sometimes been present in a dying hour — the closing 
 period of a regular life of virtue, which would have passed for 
 miserable in the minds of thousands ; yet when they have 
 finished their course they have experienced triumphant joy, in 
 the blessed hope and assurance of eternal life through the 
 merits of their dear Redeemer." Page 66. 
 
 Any reader who is not convinced of the unsoundness of this 
 assertion, I refer to the book itself: he will assuredly find that 
 a genuine spirit of penitence, of faith, and of overflowing love 
 and gratitude to his Saviour, marks in a prominent degree the 
 character of Fothergill. 
 
 Charge XVII. — « In FothergiWs Dying Exercises tJiere is not 
 one word 6f Christ or confession for sin," No. 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 These « dying exercises" are some of his dying expressions, 
 found in the preface to his Sermons : among which are the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 *< My soul triumphs over death, hell and the grave — I feel 
 a foretaste of that joy which is to come — I have an evidence 
 that I shall gain an admittance into his (Christ's) glorious 
 church triumphant far above the heavens." His last words 
 were : 
 
 « My dear love is to all them that love the LORD JESUS >" 
 
 Thus Fothergill departed full of joy and confidence, and 
 needing no " confession" in his dying moments ; his woi k was 
 done ; the Saviour had cleansed and purifyed him, and lie felt 
 an assuranci- of a full reconciliation with God. And although 
 he died with thi name of ths Lord Jtsi^s on his tongue, yet your 
 
24 
 
 minister, with the above passage before him, asserts, that « in 
 his dtjiiig exercises there is not one word of Christ.^' / ! 
 
 In addition to the want of candor, justice and truth, exhibit- 
 ed in the foregoing charges, there is superadded to the last five, 
 an ignoble and invidious aim, to cast a shade oyer the memory 
 of the dead ; to vilify the character of a worthy, upright and 
 eminent servant of Christ ; to present him before the public, 
 as a heretic, a deist, in order to asperse, by reaction, his sur- 
 viving brethren of the same profession. But I think that the 
 quotations which I have made from Fothergill's Sermons and 
 prayers, will place the unworthy motives of your minister, in 
 such a point of view, to every candid reader, that they cannot 
 be misunderstood. 
 
 In the small volume containing Fothergill's Sermons and 
 prayers, the name of Christ occurs about one hundred and fifty 
 times, besides many other allusions to him under the names of 
 " the Son of God," " the Lamb immaculate," &c., and the 
 speaker constantly presents him to the hearer, in a view the 
 most engaging, and interesting; clothing him, reverently, with 
 the character of a Redeemer, a Saviour, a Mediator, a pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world ; the only name 
 under heaven by which we can be saved ; the Lamb immacu- 
 late slain from the foundation of the world ! 
 
 ** As a preacher," says one not of the same persuasion, <* Mr. 
 Samuel Fothergill was far superior to most who fill up that 
 station. Sound in the important doctrines of the Christian faith, 
 he endeavoured to promote them universally with the greatest 
 energy of language and the most persuasive eloquence. Al- 
 though followed by numbers, and courted by persons of supe- 
 rior rank and station, and admired by those of all persuasions, 
 the applause which his eminence justly acquired, did not exalt 
 but evidently tended to make him humble. In his Sermons it 
 was evident that he deeply felt the force of the solemn truths he 
 delivered ; and his manner of displaying them was so justly 
 emphatical, that none but the insensible or obdurate could 
 withstand their force." — See preface to the Sermons, in which 
 is an extract from " the Gentleman's Magazine," for 1773, 
 relating to the author, and of which the above forms a part, 
 ^ut Samuel Fothergill had stricken the decrees out of his creed : 
 he had never *< studied theology," but learned his divinity in 
 the school of Christ : and he bore a steady testimony against 
 a corrupt <* educated ministry/* and against ecclesiastical esta- 
 hlishments ; and these, in the eyes of bigots, are crimes &;iffi- 
 cient to east the most exalted virtues into shade, and to consign 
 the memory of their possessor to endless reproach ? 
 
25 
 
 Chakge XVIII. — " IfTiencver you state your views of the (b'u- 
 prenif Being, it will he foiimU the God yon worship is not the 
 God of Israel., but the idol of the deist, dressed up ivith a few 
 Christian featuresJ* — " Your doctrine leads you to deny the 
 scriptural doctrine of the trinity." Nos. 36 and 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 " There is one God, who is a Spirit. And this is the mes- 
 sage which the apostles heard of him, and declared unto the 
 saints, that he is light, and in him is no darkness at all. There 
 are three that hear record in heaven, the Father, the \Vord, 
 and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. No man know- 
 eth the Son but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the 
 Father hut the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
 him. The Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of 
 God. For the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit 
 of God. Now the saints have received not the Spirit of the 
 world, but the Spirit which is of God, that they might know 
 the things which are freely given them of God. For the Com- 
 forter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father sends in 
 Christ's name, he teacheth them all things, and bringeth all 
 things to their remembrance." B. Conf. of Faith, Art. I. 
 
 " For the infinite and most wise God, who is the foundation, 
 root, and spring of all operation, hath wrought all things by his 
 eternal Word and Son. This is that Word which was in the 
 beginning with God and was God, by whom all things were 
 made, and without whom was not any thing made that was 
 made. This is that Jesus Christ by whom God created all 
 things : by whom and for whom all things were created, that 
 are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they 
 be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers." B. Ap. 
 p. 41. 
 
 " Hence he (Christ) is fitly called the Mediator betwixt 
 God and man, for having been with God from all eternity, be- 
 ing himself God, and also in time partaking of the nature of 
 man, through him is the goodness and love of God conveyed to 
 mankind, and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of 
 these mercies." ibid. 
 
 ** That holy man the Lord Jesus, who was born of the Virc;in 
 Mary, in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily." 
 B. Ap. p. 152. 
 
 " For I freely acknowledge according to the Scriptures, that 
 the Spirit of God proceedeth from the Father and the Son and 
 is God." Barclay's Works. 
 
 D 
 
S6 
 
 Much more might he quoted, but the foregoing is deemet^ 
 sufficient to prove that the Quakers receive and believe every 
 thing revealed in the Sacred Writings relating to tiie God- 
 head. Your minister has made this the subject of much coarse 
 obloquy and abuse, — with what justice the impartial reader may 
 now determine. Our writers, on this deep subject, have closely 
 adhered to the terms and explanations found in holy writ, and 
 believing that no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he 
 only to whomsoever the Son will reveal him, they therefore re- 
 ject the terms trinity and distinct persons^ as anti-scriptural 
 finite expressions, and inapplicable to that incomprehensible 
 God, who is every where present, and whom the heaven of 
 heavens cannot contain — terms invented by letter learned 
 priests and theologians, whose wisdom is but foolishness with 
 Him whom they thus attempt to scan. To such solemn triflers 
 we would apply the language of Job : *< Canst thou by search- 
 ing find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty to per- 
 fection ? It is as high as heaven what canst thou do ? Deeper 
 than hell what canst thou know ? The measure thereof is longer 
 than the earth and broader than the sea." 
 
 Charge XIX. — " The title under which you generally address 
 the Deity is not Redeemer but Creator.'" No. 42. 
 
 REFUTATION. 
 
 This assertion is brought forward as an additional prop to 
 sustain the charge of deism against the Society of Friends ; 
 but the extracts which I have made from their writers, will 
 convince every unprejudiced reader of the invidious, unfound- 
 ed, and futile nature of such an attempt. In refering to the 
 prayers of Fothergill, he will find the Deity addressed by the 
 titles of Father, Lord, Gracious God, Shepherd of Israel, Holy 
 One, Sovereign Author of Peace, &c,, and frequent allusions 
 are made to Him as the fountain of divine grace, and the Author 
 of our Salvation. And although your minister here asserts 
 that we generally address him by the title only of " Creator," 
 yet in aU the Jive prayers, the word Creator is not used in a sin- 
 gle instance 1 1 
 
 Such is the character of some of the charges preferred by 
 tliis writer against the Society of Friends — charges made 
 " after much prayer and seeking after duty ;" by one too who 
 informs us in his first number, that he is armed strong in ho- 
 msty, and has <* no other object but truth." ! After reading 
 
S7 
 
 the refutations extracted from those very writers which he has 
 asserted he hfid rearf, will not every impartial judge, — will not 
 you acknowledge, that he has degraded the station he holds as 
 a minister of the Gospel, in thus violating every principle of 
 candor, justice, and truth ? Inspect closely the five or six last 
 assertions, and then ask yourselves how this imputation can 
 possibly be evaded ? 
 
 We are told by your minister that he has attended our 
 « meetings for years.*' Now I think the truth of this assertion 
 may fairly be questioned. How shall a Presbyterian minister 
 discharge his pastoral duties to his Congregation, and at the 
 same time attend our meetings in the sense here intended to be 
 conveyed? He asserts that he has conversed freely with our 
 people; yet in another place complains that we " avoid religious 
 conversation." ! In one place the reader is informed that we 
 set up conscience as an infallible guide, and in another he 
 charges us with the infidel doctrine of making it the mere crea- 
 ture of habit ! He affirms in several places to our deistical doc- 
 trines, and that we do not worship the God of Israel, yet he 
 very charitably admits in another place, that there are real 
 saints in our society. Saints who are deistSf and worship not 
 the true God ! ! And, to caj) the climax of this paragon of false- 
 hoods and contradictions, he asserts : <« In my letters to the 
 FriendSf I am not conscious of using one exjjression in the least 
 degree untrue, unjust, or jincharitable." ! I 
 
 In one place he says with not a little self complacency : " I 
 know that my spirit is full of love ," and again : " I am with- 
 out hypocrisy, in true Christian charity, your affectionate friendJ^* 
 Now take the following expressions as an evidence of Iiis over- 
 flowing love, and Christian cjiarity : 
 
 «< Just so in your Society (as with the heathen) Pelagians* 
 Universalists, Socinians, deists and atheists, can dwell toge- 
 ther in amity. It is no matter what a man believes, so he is 
 sincere ;* and every s])eaker declaring what doctrine he 
 please, provided he does not preach the gospel. But should the 
 
 ♦ " If any in membership with us shall blaspheme or speak prophanely 
 of Almighty God, Christ Jesus, or the Holy Ghost, he or slie ought early to be 
 tenderly treated with for their instruction and the convincement of their un- 
 derstandings, that they may experience repentance and forgiveness : but 
 should any notwitlistanding this brotherly labour, persist in their error or deny 
 the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the immediate revelation 
 of the Holy Spirit, or the authenticity of the Scriptures, as it is manifest they 
 are not one in faith with us, the monthly meeting where the party belongs, 
 Jiaving extended due care for the help and benefit of the individual, without 
 effect, aught to declare the same, and issue their testimony accordingly." 
 
 Discipline of the Quakers, page 23- 
 
as 
 
 apostles themselves appear among you, and preach their old 
 doctrines, you would all say, *' sit ye down, ye are not called 
 to minister." 
 
 *♦ Between you and us, [here he makes himself the mouth- 
 piece of all other denominations] there is a great gulf fixed, 
 which forever forbids our union in this world, if not in the 
 
 ** Until you give more satisfactory evidence that you are 
 really on the side of Christ and the gospel — faithful watchmen 
 on the walls of Zion will keep you at a distance [stand off, for 
 I am holier than thou /] and regard you as enemies of Christ and 
 his cause." 
 
 " The searcher of hearts is my witness that my soul weeps 
 over the souls you are ruining, by keeping them in ignorance 
 of the only true God and the salvation of Christ." 
 
 " A difference from your brethren of other denominations 
 on this point, will forever separate you from their communion, 
 and exclude you in their estimation, from the visible church and 
 the number of the worshippers of the only true God.'^ 
 
 Amicus having alluded to some of the enlightened heath- 
 ens, as furnishing an evidence from their sentiments, charac- 
 ter and conduct, that the grace of God (contrary to your creed) 
 had been extended to these, although they had no outward 
 knowledge of Christ, agreeably to the testimony of the apostle 
 respecting them : that many of the Hindoos saw beyond the 
 idolatries which they practised ; that modern missionaries, in 
 their labours to convert the heathens, lay too much stress on 
 forms and opinions, and too little on principles and practice, and 
 therefore were not likely to profit them : that our Indians, 
 having, in their intercourse with those called christians, con- 
 tracted the vices of civilization to the exclusion of its virtues, 
 had been thus deteriorated rather than benefited. Amicus 
 having presented these views, the correctness of which, few 
 I think will deny, your minister after along episode, having no 
 immediate bearing on the case, breaks forth into the following 
 strain against the Quakers : 
 
 " After you have openly preferred the religion of the Hin- 
 doos, and of our western Indians, to Christianity : after you 
 have denied the worship of Vishnoo and Brahma to be idolatry : 
 after you have allowed the deists to have saving grace : after 
 you have said the religion of Christendom is falsely called the 
 Christian religion, and that the heathens have always been 
 made worse by the professors of Christianity, the public will 
 need no further justification of all the charges I have brought 
 
2Q 
 
 against you, nor doubt your partiality for heathenism, and yom 
 hostility to the religion of Jesus Christ I /" 
 
 Are we to accept this raudern Saul as a fair examplar of those 
 « pious young men,* with whom your adored Mma Mater is 
 now teeming, and who are, by and by, to be brought forth to 
 refine and improve, by precept and example, the morals and 
 religion of society ? He has informed the public that truth is 
 the sole object of his researches. Why then resort to abuse, 
 calumny, and falsehood ? He tells us also, that he is ** armed 
 strong in honesty." Why then descend to the use of weapons 
 that no honest man would wield I Truth and honesty, there- 
 fore, are out of the question, and we are fully justified in the 
 conclusion, that a motive of a very different, of a much less 
 exalted character than truth, has influenced him ; and that, 
 whilst wandering in this labyrinth of error, he has put on 
 other armour than that of honesty. 
 
 When high professors yield to a shameful misrule of the 
 passions, and put forth their hands "to steady the ark," Chris- 
 tianity sustains a greater injury than its open foes can possibly 
 inflict ; for it is with the church as with man : " the greatest 
 enemies are those of her own household." When pastors depart 
 from the precepts laid down by the holy apostle, that a bishop 
 must he blameless, not soon angry, sober, just, holy, temperate, 
 gentle unto all men, patient, and in nuekness instructing those 
 that oppose themselves^' — when, instead of adhering to this whole- 
 some advice, they calumniate and falsify ; they not only suffer 
 loss themselves, but they open the mouths of gainsayers, bring 
 reproach upon their profession, injure their service, and by 
 this unsavoury fruit, set the teeth of those on edge over whom 
 they are placed. Now, if we are to believe this writer, his 
 whole object is truth, and he has taken up the pen to convince 
 the Quakers that they are wrong. Is it to be believed that- 
 your minister is so ignorant of mankind, as to presume that 
 imputation and contumely will convince and reform them ? 
 The Quakers have been accused of obstinacy. If an unyielding 
 tenacity of the rights of conscience, and an undeviating perse- 
 verance in what they believe to be their religious duties, justi- 
 fies the imputation, their history proves them to be the most 
 obstinate people upon earth ! Your brethren of New England 
 can testify that halters have no terrors for them, wliere reli- 
 gious obligation is concerned. For every one these Presbyte- 
 rians hung, five came in his room ! ! What then can those feeble 
 weapons which your minister wields, achieve against such ar- 
 mour ? He has predicted the downfall of Quakerism, and his 
 brethren did the same one hundred years ago 5 yet the Qua- 
 
30 
 
 kers are at this day more numerous than ever. Hence « this 
 also is vanity" and delusive as <' the hypocrite's hope," which 
 perisheth. But although the Quakers should abandon their 
 standard, or become extinct, yet even from such an event the 
 priesthood have nothing to hope, for ** the very stones would 
 cry out," and the testimonies which this people now bear 
 against priestcraft; a hireling man-made ministry; an out- 
 ward carnal, speculative religion, and theological seminaries ; 
 and against war and slavery, will ever continue to be main- 
 tained, and to flourish like plants of the Lord's right hand 
 planting, until the free gospel of Jesus Christ shall cease to be 
 bought and sold, and the true spiritual worship of God be every 
 where established in the room of the present outward ceremo- 
 nious systems, the mere caput mortuum of a former dispensa- 
 tion — and until righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters 
 cover the sea. 
 
 The opposition made by the Quakers, as well to the nature 
 and constitution, as to the power and influence of an educated 
 hireling ministry, has ever drawn down upon them the ire and 
 indignation of Reverends and Right Reverends of almost every 
 denomination. From the pulpit and the press, the most infa- 
 mous and calumnious libels have issued against them, to destroy 
 their influence, by rendering them odious in the public estima- 
 tion ; but the object has failed ; for «* George Fox," says Gover- 
 nor Livingston, '* has done more towards the restoration of real, 
 unadulterated Christianity, and the extirpation of priestcraft^ 
 superstition, and ridiculous, unavailing rites and ceremonies, 
 tvithout human learning, than any other reformer in protestant 
 Christendom has done with it." Am. Museum, vol. viii. p. 235. 
 
 Of the sort of means resorted to by a venal priesthood to 
 accomplish their object, this attack of your minister affords an 
 excellent specimen ; and we may expect to hear the old clerical 
 cry of deist, heretic, &c. resounded from Maine to Georgia, by 
 these reverend gentlemen. But what will all this avail ? The 
 voice of the Quakers against priestcraft, never has, nor never 
 will be suppressed ; and the more pressing the emergency, and 
 the liotter the persecution, the stronger will be the reaction., 
 and the more distinctlv will that voice be heard. 
 
LETTEU II. 
 
 MISSIONARY AND BIBLE SOCIETIES. 
 
 AFTER proving in the foregoing letter, your ministcr*a 
 entire disregard to truth and candour, I am very sure that 
 every impartial reader, on the maxim expede Hercultnif would 
 consider it as wholly superfluous to take any further notice of 
 a writer who has thus forfeited all legitimate claim to the cre- 
 dence, and even to the forbearance of his readers. There is 
 yet one charge, however, the grounds of which 1 propose to 
 examine at some length, because it is brought forward with a 
 degree of plausibility, and on a subject too, in which a large 
 portion of the christian community has taken a deep and lively 
 interest. I allude to our alleged opposition to Missionary and 
 Bible Societies. 
 
 That the Quakers are opposed to any means likely to advance, 
 in their view, the Redeemer's kingdom in the earth, is a charge 
 not less groudless than absurd. That they are enemies to gos- 
 pel missions, and the proper distribution of Bibles and other 
 suitable religious books, is sufficiently contradicted by their 
 own efforts in that way from their first origin as a Society. 
 That they have made any opposition in a collective capacity. 
 to Missionary and Bible Societies as they are at present con- 
 stituted, is also a charge equally destitute of foundation. But 
 it is a fact and one which J feel no reluctance publicly to avow. 
 that the Quakers in an individual capacittjf have very general- 
 ly declined to associate with, and some members of that Society 
 have publicly opposed these enterprises. The reasons, prin- 
 cipally, which have influenced their determination herein, I 
 would assign as follows : 
 
 1. These undertakings have their origin from the natural 
 ivill and wisdovn, of the Creature. 
 
 2. Thetj are conducted bij a spuriously ordainedt man-made 
 ministry. 
 
 S. This ministry is also a hireling ministry. 
 
 Now, whilst Quakerism exists, these three objections must 
 in my view, be insuperable bars to a union of effort, in the pro- 
 pagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in any part of the world : 
 
iiur can any individual of this society, associate in any religious 
 concern of this kind, with any one who upholds an educated hire- 
 ling ministi-y, without a violation of his principles as a Quaker. 
 In these free remarks^, I wish not to be understood as con- 
 demning all who are engaged in missionary concerns. I believe 
 there arc many, who are active both in bestowing charitable 
 donations, and in missionary labours abroad, who are not less 
 sincere than disinterested in their motives. But sincerity and 
 disinterestedness are not the touchstones of truth and error. 1 
 also believe that some partial good may be effected by these 
 efforts ; yet this by no means proves, that these widely ex- 
 tended schemes will finally result in the advancement of the 
 Redeemer's kingdom, or in the general good of mankind. But, 
 in order to bring this question fairly before the reader, I will 
 have recourse to facts. 
 
 There has never been a people since the first rise of Chris- 
 tianity, so conspicuous for their grand efforts in the cause of 
 missions as the order of the Jesuits. Our moderns cannot 
 compete with the followers of the fanatical, but ambitious 
 Loyola, in any of the grand pre-requisites for the evangeli- 
 zation of the heathen. They possessed in the seventeenth 
 century no less than six thousand colleges^ one hundred and 
 fifty seminaries, and two hundred missions ! Hence in learning, 
 in indefatigable zeal, pious frauds, and in " holy cunning ,•" 
 even your minister himself, who it seems, would " circumcise 
 a Jew to ingratiate himself into favour," and win him over to 
 the Calvinistic faith, must yield the palm to the famous order 
 of the Jesuits. 
 
 Having «• studied theology," and being amply furnished with 
 that grand sine qua non — money, these " pious, intelligent, 
 enterprising ministers," spread themselves over the eastern 
 world, made an immense number of proselytes ; and, agreeably 
 to the plan of the inimitable and orthodox Lyman Beecher, 
 formed ♦< an extensive combination of institutions, religious, 
 civil, and literary," by " establishing schools, and colleges, 
 and academies, and habits of homogeneous influence." What 
 has been the result of all these labours? I need not enter into 
 a detail of the well known, yet terrible catastrophe. Planned 
 and conducted agreeably to the dictates of human wisdom, these 
 schemes had a sandy, unstable basis. A spirit of pride and 
 ambition grew with the growth and strengthened with the 
 strength of these Babel-builders ; until at length, confiding in 
 their numbers and influence, they insulted, in Japan, a prince 
 of the empire, and for this offence, they, with their numerous 
 converts, were all cut off with the sword ! In China they set 
 
38 
 
 about devising schemes to overturn the government, whicli, 
 being discovered, produced their ininicdiale xpidsion, and no 
 christian missionary, I believe, has since been permitted to 
 enter the empire. 
 
 The Jesuits also proselyted thousands in Ceylon, Hindostan, 
 and other parts of the East, and splendid churches were erect- 
 ed in these countries. Wliat is the result ? After hundreds 
 of missionaries had been eai|)loyed, vast sums of money ex- 
 pended in erecting magnificent places for worship, and the 
 mtjst animating accounts of success amongst the heathens had 
 been, from time to time, transmitted to the Holy See ^ to use the lan- 
 guage of one of our own missionaries, <» the zeal which origina- 
 ted these missions, appai ^ntly vanislied," the most of their eon- 
 verts reverted back a^ain to heathenism^ and their splendid 
 churches being visited by thfm no more, several of the mis- 
 sionaries who now go there from the protestant countries, arc 
 beginning to repair and occupy them again. 
 
 The Jesuits extended their operations to this continent, and 
 we have the following account of these from senatorBenton, who, 
 in speaking to a motion made in tiie senate, in relation to some 
 lands granted to the United Brethren, said : 
 
 << He believed great abuses had been committed on public 
 and private charity, in the name of humanity to Indians, and 
 he could hold it but little short of an abuse to attempt at this 
 day, with the experience of three hundred years before our 
 eyes, to raise money from the weak and credulous for the pur- 
 pose of converting the Indians. He said he would go back 
 two hundred years for the sake of a single example. Canada 
 was then just discovered — the French held it — Henry IV. was 
 on the throne, and the Jesuit, father Cotton, was his confessor. 
 This Jesuit conceived the design of converting the Canada 
 Indians, and the first question with him (as with you) was to 
 raise the ways and means. Man," said the senator, <* is an ex- 
 citable animal, and woman still more so ; and above all, a 
 French man and a French woman. The Jesuit knew this, so 
 he addressed himself to the ladies of the court and of the city 
 of Paris. The effect was electric. High and low rushed into 
 the project. Enemies in every thing else united in this. — 
 Tile gazettes of the day were spangled over with the names 
 and titles of female patronesses of missions. Money, clothes, 
 and valuable effects flowed in upon the Jesuit. Young ladies 
 were even sent to Canada to nurse the sick christian In- 
 dians. To repay so much liberality, the Jesuit missionaries 
 sent back the most wonderful accounts of their success. Ac- 
 cording to their reports, the six nations, and divers other na- 
 
 E 
 
u 
 
 tions were converted. The K>eal of the ladies rose to phrenay, 
 and father Cotton had to moderate it. The French Calvin- 
 ists insisted all the while tliat the Jesuits were doing no good to 
 the Indians, but acquiring much power and riches for them- 
 selves, for which they were, of course, stigmatized as the ene- 
 mies of the Indians. On which side the better reason was, 
 might be guessed at from the fact, that when the English go- 
 vernment succeeded to the sovereignty of the Canadas, they 
 found the Jesuits in possession of very few converts, and in 
 the enjoyment of very large revenues ; no less than 44,000 
 dollars per annum, which went to the British crown upon the 
 extinction of the order some years ago ; and there ended the 
 charities of Parisian ladies in favor of converting American 
 Indians." 
 
 "But," continues the senator, *< it was not father Cotton and 
 the ladies only, who had tried this business and failed in it. 
 All the kings of France, from the discovery of Canada in 1600, 
 to the cession of that province and Louisiana in 1763, had 
 made the same experiment, with the same wonderful success 
 in the beginning, and the same miserable result in the end. In 
 the reigns of these kings, the missionaries covered the valley 
 of the Mississippi, and carried their adventurous zeal to the 
 shores of lake Superior and Winipec, and to the banks of the 
 Saskatchiwine river, every where converting nations, and 
 building chapels, and bringing to their altars innumerable wor- 
 shippers of the only true and living God ! and yet what is the 
 present fruit of all this labour? If a traveller on the banks 
 of the Mississippi should inquire for the monuments of that 
 time, and of that work, he might be pointed to the walls of 
 a fallen down house in the village of Kaskaskia, and told < that 
 'was the Jesuit's college.* He might be pointed to a stream of 
 water below St. Louis, called la riviere des pires, (river of the 
 fathers,) and to anotlier above, called la riviere des moines, 
 (river of the monks.) and informed that these walls and these 
 names, are the only vestiges which now remain of all the la- 
 l)ors of that powerful order, in this magnificent valley." 
 
 The senator pointed to Lake Superior, and said " It was the 
 same thing there. The scite of the chapel which contained 
 eight hundred worshippers in the time of Charlevoix, was 
 now unknown. Nay more ; the knowledge of the fact that 
 missionaries had ever been there, was itself in danger of being 
 lost. He had the authority of sir Alexander M*Kenzie for as- 
 serting, that this knowledge, even thirty years ago, was con- 
 fined to the stream of tradition, and to the memory of some 
 superannuated old men. If such had been the fruit of missions. 
 
35 
 
 patronized by such men as Hetiry IV., and the Duke of Sully, 
 Louis XIII., and cardinal Richlieu ; Louis XIV., and the 
 great Colbert, led by an order, who, for energy and devotion, 
 have been styled the Janisaries of the Papal throne ; he for 
 one," said the senator, " was ready to despair of any great 
 success from our empty pockets and discordant forces." 
 
 Such is an outline of the history and results of the labours 
 of the Jesuits to give Christianity to the heathen nations. From 
 this source we draw an ample fund of experience ; a degree 
 of evidence, which ought to put to rest all Imman speculations 
 on this subject. An evidence that God has not chosen such 
 instruments to promote his cause in the earth ; to these he 
 " giveth not his glory," neither his "praise to graven ima- 
 ges." 
 
 Now the basis upon which rests the modern missionary su- 
 perstructure, is, essentially, the same. Colleges, and acade- 
 mies, and seminaries, and the study of a dry, dull, and barren 
 theology, are now, as then, the great pre-requisites. The same 
 man made ministry ; and pursuing alike, the counsels of their 
 own carnal wills, and creaturely conceptions, the declaration 
 of the Most High to the false prophets of old, is equally appli- 
 cable to both cases : « Therefore, behold I am against the pro- 
 phets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, every one from his 
 neighbour; that use their tongues and say, * he saith;* that 
 prophesy false dreams saith the Lord, and do tell them, and 
 cause my people to err, by their lies, and by their lightness; 
 yet I sent them not, nor commanded them ; therefore they shall not 
 profit this people at all, saith the Lord." 
 
 1 now ask the reader's attention to some facts which have 
 lecked out, in relation to our modern missions in foreign coun-. 
 tries. 
 
 1. *' The American board of commissioners for foreign mis- 
 sions was instituted in June, 1810, and incorporated June 20th, 
 1812. In ten years there has been paid from the treasury of 
 the board, the sum of 201,600 dollars. In these ten years, there 
 have been received under the patronage and direction of the 
 board, as missioiiaries and assistants, sixty-two men and forty- 
 eiglvt women — in all, 110. Eighty-eight are now in the fields 
 respectively assigned them, or on their way to them. Of these, 
 twenty-six are ordained ministers of the gospel, educated, the 
 most of them, in literary and theological seminaries of the first 
 order in our country." Missitmary Herald, 1821. 
 
 The committee of the board, in their last annual report, say, 
 " Of the effects and fruits actually produced, it is yet time to ex- 
 pect but little f and to say but little." Such is the account after 
 
36 
 
 ten years operation, the employment of one hundred and ten 
 workmen, and the expenditure of above 200,00;; dollars ! Such 
 a report, coming too from such a quarter, speaks volumes on 
 this subject. The Jesuits repaid the Parisian ladies with the 
 most Jlattenng accounts. But this board, alihougli their ca- 
 terers are so vociferous in urging our American ladies to rise 
 early and sit up late, and «< wliirl the wheel" to make money for 
 them, comfort th« nj only with a doubtful and distant prospect. 
 
 2. The missioTi at Rangoon in the Birman empire, has con- 
 tinued about twelve years. I ive missionaries have been sta- 
 tioned here, where many have gone from this country, and not 
 less than fifty or sixty tiiousand dollars expended — three thou- 
 sand sent from this country at one time. During this period 
 of twelve years, thirteen natives only have been baptized. This 
 :met is stated on the authority of the missionaries themselves. 
 The missionaries have lately been expelled from this station 
 by order of the emperor. 
 
 3. Speaking of the want of success amongst the natives in 
 Calcutta, Lawson, an English Baptist missionary, writes : 
 
 <' We together with our fellow labourers are casting in the 
 seed, but we perceive no effects. We call to repentance, but 
 none seems to obey the call. The natives collect in numbers 
 to hear the word of God proclaimed. They listen sometimes 
 attentively ; sometimes they nod assent to what we say, and 
 some appear cordially to approve ; at other times they ridicule 
 or oppose with virulence : but the service concludes, and the 
 people disperse again, and all seems forgotten. Tkis state of 
 things has now continued for two or three years, and no fruits 
 appear." 
 
 4. The Missionary Society in England have erected at a 
 vast expense a splendid establishment at Serampore, and have 
 embellished it with all the resources of art, such as costly 
 buildings, elegant gardens, &c. This property has already 
 become a bone of contention with the apostles of the cross sta- 
 tioned there, as appears by the following extract of a letter 
 from a Baptist missionary now in India : 
 
 *» The missionaries (at Serampore) began in a way which 
 human frailty could not long sustain. What is now the result ! ! 
 It is on my mind, and should 1 be fearful of exposing, what, in 
 official letters has been declared to all the junior brethren ? 
 That the triumvirate at Serampore, have by a solemn act, pro- 
 nounced themselves henceforth disconnectedfrom, and independeiit 
 of the society in England. All the junior missionaries sent out 
 by the society, (hey have cut off, and by a law (from whence 
 obtained unknown) declared the premises at Seramiwre to be 
 
S7 
 
 their own exclusive property. They reserve to themselves the 
 right of appointing successors. It is well known tliat the pre- 
 mises as well as themselves, have been considered as the so- 
 ciety's property. By their industry they have built up the 
 place, beautified and enriched it. It is now too tempting a spec- 
 tacle to be viewed, as not their own. In this very act you see 
 the error in the original plan. It is not justified ; it excitea 
 general disgust : it is a mystery insolvable by many, but the 
 Jesuitism long practisedy has nearly as long been penetrated 
 by a few discerners, and now the chapter needs no index nor 
 comment. Oh for plain simplicity in such matters ! Men 
 should not trust too much to fellow men, on either side. A 
 society in England or America is in the dark. Things in India 
 are, and must necessarily be, different from theinviews. From 
 time to time all tiic juniors have been by affectionate words and 
 gentle pressures, squeezed out from taking or acting any part 
 at Serampore, very much to the disappointment of first views." 
 "The brethren at Serampore by their recent declarations, have 
 greatly grieved all the younger brethren, that they should so 
 have disgraced themselves.'* 
 
 Behold the seeds of dissention already scattered among these 
 selected, disinterested, unambitious, few ! and what about ? A 
 little piece of worldly property. Such are the men who have 
 been sent out to teach the heathen " to keep himself unspotted 
 from the world; to furnish him with the fist examples of Chris- 
 tian walking; to say to him in the strong language of conduct, 
 as an apostle to the heathen did formerly, *^ follow me as I fol- 
 low Christ /" But let us pursue this inquiry further, and 
 examine how missionary matters are managed at Serampore, 
 the focus wherein are concentrated the hopes of so large a 
 portion of the christian world. 
 
 5. Harriet Newell, wife of one of the Missionaries, on her 
 arrival at Serampore, gives the following account : 
 
 <« This is the most delightful place I ever saw. Here the 
 Missionaries enjoy all the comforts of life. The mission house 
 consists of four large, commodious stone buildings, Dr. Ca- 
 rey's, Dr. Marshman's, Mr. Ward's, and the common house. 
 Imagine to yourself a large stone house, with six lofty, spacious 
 keeping and lodging rooms, with the same number of unim- 
 proved rooms below ; such is the building. Dr. Carey's house 
 appeared like a palace to us — Dr. Carey is now advanced to a 
 state of honour, with six thousand dollars per annum. We ac- 
 cepted an invitation to visit the mission family at Serampore. 
 Here peace and plenty dwell, and we almost forget that we are in 
 a land of pagan darkness. The garden is larger and much more 
 
38 
 
 elegant than any I ever satv in Jlmerica.^^ " Dr. Carey has a 
 large, number of" Hindoo servants." ) 
 
 From this account the reader will perceive much superfluous 
 expenditure, in erecting <« palaces" and constructing " elegant 
 gardens," to feed the " lust of the eye" and the " pride of life," 
 of the professed apostles of that Saviour, who was made an ex- 
 ampkf that we might follow his steps : and who was »« meek and 
 low," " and had not where to lay his head." Every sensihle 
 mind, I think, must lament this great departure from the Chris- 
 tian simplicity of the ancient apostles to the Gentiles^ and its 
 corrupting effects upon the simple natives of Hindostan. 
 
 6. " Mr. and Mrs. Marshman," says H. Newell, " have large 
 schools of English and half English children — about eighty in 
 each school : — Mrs. M. has a lovely school of English young 
 ladies, where they are instructed in einbroidery, working mus- 
 lin, and various other things. There is a charity school close 
 by Dr. Carey's, in Calcutta, supported by subscription, mana- 
 ged by the Baptist Missionaries, consisting of about one hun^ 
 dred Portuguese children.*' 
 
 Much has been said here about the great advantage arising 
 to heathen children from these schools, and societies have been 
 formed in this country, and many parents have constituted 
 their children members of them, contributing each from half a 
 cent to a cent a week, to aid in this highly interesting concern. 
 Now, after all this, these contributors must feel no little chagrin 
 and disappointment, not to be able to find, by Harriet Newell's 
 statement, one single Hindoo child in these institutions ! ! In 
 the place of a charity school for heathen children, here is a 
 boarding school for the benefit of the progeny of wealthy En- 
 glishmen, and it is stated that Marshman's wife has made by 
 her school in a few years the enormous sum of twenty thousand 
 pounds sterling ! Added to this, we find these Missionaries or 
 their assistants employed in teaching the arts of embroidery 
 and working on muslin. Thus, in the place of christianizinic 
 the heathen, here is a manufactory of articles of luxury, in 
 pamper pride and vanity ! 
 
 7. One of the Missionaries writes, that " a native brother 
 and his family may live comfortably for sixty fve doWArs a year, 
 but a Missionary with a thousand dollars a year will often find 
 himself straightened I In order that the reader may compre- 
 hend the cause of this astonishing difference in expense, I pre- 
 sent the following account of their mode of living, transmitted 
 by one of the Missionaries. 
 
 *« There were on the table to day," says he, " a loin of veal 
 roasted, a joint of mutton, a kids-head pie, a piece of smoked 
 
flitch, a piece of roasted pork, a boiled fowl, a hash and a curry ^ 
 pea-soup, potatoes, picliled limes, purified water, claret, brandy 
 and Madeii'a wines for drink : for dcsscri, a poach pie, an almond 
 pudding, ripe mangoes, plantains, and a sort of plum with 
 preserves." 
 
 We have heard much of the severe labours and privations of 
 the Missionaries in India, but when \\e read the ab(»ve authen- 
 tic accounts of the *< palaces" they inhabit, their *< elegant 
 gardens," and the luxury of their tables, it gives a very dif- 
 ferent face to the whole affair. The impressions hereby made 
 on the minds of the natives cannot but be hostile to the chris- 
 tian system. Their own priests live on one meal of nee per 
 day ; and the expense of their keep is hut sixty dollars or less 
 per annum, whilst one thousand dollars is barely sufficient for 
 one of our self-denying Missionaries ! ! This statement, with Dr, 
 Carey's salary of six thousand dollars a year, reminds us of 
 what passed between captain Riley, and a Spanish Missionary 
 in the Moorish domipions. 
 
 "This Padre," says Riley, "told me that he bad lived in 
 Barbary for ten years, four of which he had spent at Mogadore, 
 three at Rabat, and three here, (Laresli) secluded from the 
 civilized world ; that the court of Spain allowed a large pre- 
 mium to those Padres or fathers of good character, to be ap- 
 proved by the archbishop, who are willing to spend ten years 
 in Barbary, as missionaries, and a stipend of three tliousand 
 dollars a year for the remainder of their lives. I asked him 
 of what use he could be in Barbary, to the cause of Christianity, 
 since he dare not even attempt to convert a Moor or an Arab, 
 or mention the name of the Saviour as one of the God-head, to 
 either, or even to a Jew ? < J^one at all,* said he, « but still 
 we hear the name of missionaries at home to convert the hea- 
 then : our allowance of money is ample; we live 7Vtll, as you 
 see, (he was indeed fat and in fine order) laugh at the folly of 
 our countrymen, and enjoy the present as well as we can. 
 When these ten years expire, we get leave to return to our 
 country, where we are received as patterns of piety, that have 
 rendered vast services to the christian world ; every respectable 
 house is open to receive us ; our company is much sought after ; 
 our yearly salary of three thousand dollars aflbrds us many 
 gratifications ; and for this ten years spent in such privations 
 and severe gospel labours, we are allowed absolution for the re- 
 mainder of our lives.' " Riley's Narat. p. 507. 
 
 8. One of the missionaries (Ward) from Serampore, has lately 
 visited this country on a begging expedition; j)reparatory to 
 which he issued a circular, in which he made a ranting, highly 
 
40 
 
 toioiii'cd appeal '<io all that is christian in the United States," 
 to aid liim witli their monetj, in tlie institution and support of 
 a college to teach Latin and GreeJc to the <* native evangelists.'' 
 Now to christianize the world, the Jesuits had, as before men- 
 tioned, no less than six hundred of such establishments, all of 
 which were, not a great many years since, "in the full tide of 
 unsuccessful experiment." Where are they now ? What good 
 have they done ? Afflavit Deus et dissipatui : the wisdom of 
 man is foolishness with God. He hath swept them with the 
 besom of destruction, without one trace being left of their bene- 
 fit to the heathen world ! Still this one college at Seramporeis 
 to evangelize Hindostan ! ! And in defiance of reason and ex- 
 perience, the " holy cunning" of this missionary has added 
 ten thousand dollars to his funds ! Never was there a greater 
 abuse committed upon charity. But this Jesuitical scheme, 
 like the English boarding school, may serve to enrich the 
 *' triumvirate." at the expense of our credulous citizens. 
 
 9. [n no place have missionary labours been so successful in 
 proselytijig the native heathen as at the Society Islands in the 
 Pacific ocean. The inhabitants had, however, burnt their idols 
 before any missionarij had arrived among them. One of the mis- 
 sionaries writes that they had opened a singing school, and adds : 
 " our singing, aided by the bass viol, on which G. P. Tamoree 
 played, was pleasing to the natives, and will probably have a 
 salutarij influence in winning them to approve and to engage in 
 christian worship." Here is displayed the genuine Jesuitical 
 mode of proselyting. These people are to be allured^ enticed 
 into religion — repentance and the new birth is to be effected by 
 the sound of instrumental music ; tiie pangs of regeneration 
 promoted by the pleasures of sense ! ! In the missionary labours 
 of our Lord and the apostles, no precept is furnished for the use 
 of musical instruments, nor the opening oi singing schools. Con- 
 verts made througli such a viediuvi, will, like those of the Jesuits, 
 isave the form only, but must remain strangers to the power of 
 ehristianity. 
 
 These simple children of nature, having no money to give 
 the missionaries, they have begun to fleece them of their pro- 
 duce, oil, pigs, and arrow root. Thus, a missionary writes, 
 that at a meeting in the " Royal Mission Chapel, the natives 
 wcveurged to forward their intended subscriptions of oil :" — and 
 again, " the whole of the oil collected here was on board, and 
 messengers were sent to different parts to urge the natives to 
 forward the oil in their possession: — again, at another meeting, 
 it is stated : "Tati stood up and exhorted the members of the 
 society to bring in their subscriptions immediately." Thus at 
 
41 
 
 every meeting the qjiid pro q\io is a grand and primary object 
 of concern, and oil, and pigs, and arrow root, are already as 
 closely associated with religious worship in those islands, as 
 dollars and cents are in the United States ! ! 
 
 10. There are at Calcutta and Serampore fourteen missiona- 
 ries. One of tht'se writes from Calcutta : " We have to lament 
 that the work of conversion does not keep pace toith the increase 
 of mtiiisters" This is not a new fact: ecclesiastical and civil 
 hjstory warrant the assertion, that the decrease of pure religion 
 has been, in general, in a direct ratio to the increase of an edu- 
 cated ministry. On this point Mosheim says : " We see from 
 the conversion of a great part of mankind to the gospel by the 
 ministry of weak andilliterate inen, the progress of Christianity 
 is not to be attributed to human means, but to a divine power,** 
 Vol. i. page 114. 
 
 Now the means which you use to prepare men for this work, 
 such as the teaching them the dead languages, the study of a 
 fruitless, barren theology, and the laying on of hands, are alto- 
 gether human ; they all stand in the will and wisdom of man, 
 which, on the authority of Scripture testimony, and the expe- 
 rience of all ages, can never promote the righteousness of God, 
 
 11. One of the missionaries, in speaking of the church in the 
 East Indies, says : <« In consequence of the removal of his 
 majesty's eighty-fourth regiment, our numbers have been al- 
 most all taken away from us." Here we have a Christian 
 church composed of men who follow war as a trade, and who 
 are actively engaged for a shilling a day, or less, in taking 
 away the lives of the natives ! How many thousands and tens 
 of thousands of them have been slain by Christian hands ! Their 
 blood, shed by the professed followers of Jesus, has enriched the 
 plains of Hindostan ! Let Andover, and Princeton, and all your 
 other seminaries, pour forth their hosts ; to their united labours 
 add those of their departed brethren, the followers of Loyola; 
 sum up the fruits of past, present, and future zeal, and the 
 whole number turned from the worship of Brahma, will not 
 amount to one tenth of that which has fallen beneath the sw(»rds 
 of Christian armies ! ! ! Yet you are advocates for war. (Vid. 
 Conf. of Faith.) Here your ministers are heard pouring f»rth 
 their prayers to the Christian's God for success in battle : — for 
 the destruction of the native heathens ; there your missionaries 
 are urging them to come and worship at his altars ! ! Are you 
 serious? Do you expect thus to convert the heathen to >our 
 religion? Ought not the poor Hindoo to quake with horror at the 
 Christian's God ? At the name «>f that deity, who thus sends his 
 professed worshippers to execute his decrees for their destruc- 
 
4S 
 
 tion ? Can a greater inconsistency be conceived i — AVhilst the 
 earth is reeking with the blood of heathens, shed by the pre- 
 tended followers of Christ, you are preaching to them, this same 
 ■Christ as their only Redeemer — that he died for them, and shed 
 Lis blood for their salvation ! ! ! 
 
 This is not the picture of a heated imagination, but a plain 
 tale sustained by facts and fair induction : and when we shift 
 the scenes from the eastern to this western world, it is but 
 to witness another tragedy, and to feel alike the annihilation 
 of all rational hope of benefit from your missionary labours 
 among the aborigines of our country. 
 
 When your brethren in profession, the *' Pilgrims," flying 
 from their persecutors, sought an asylum in New England, 
 they came 2iS fighting Christians. They built forts and pallisa- 
 does ; and adopted and practised on the system that every man 
 should be a soldier. The poor natives observing these hostile 
 movements, prepared to defend themselves, and a war of exter- 
 mination succeeded. The Indians, according to their savage 
 customs, treated their prisoners with great cruelty. The 
 <« Pilgrims" in this respect were not far behind them. They 
 beheaded their sachems, killed the male captives, and made 
 slaves of the women and children. From tliis period down 
 to Jackson's war of exterminationf the blood of the natives 
 scarcely has had time to dry on the swords of Christians, when 
 new murders have stained them afresh. The Christian his- 
 torians have charged all this to the account of savage perfidy 
 and barbarity ; but Indian tradition with more truth, to Chris- 
 tian avarice and cupidity. The untutored aborigines have no 
 pen to record their tale, but there is one highly important 
 historical record which speaks volumes in their praise ; one 
 which our fighting Christians never cite. 
 
 Penn and his brethren, escaping, like your *' Pilgrims" from 
 the persecution of an *< educated ministry," landed on the 
 shores of the Delaware among the same " savage, perfidious 
 barbarians." But they presented to these heathens a very 
 different front. They had neither sv/ords nor guns, nor palli- 
 sadoes, nor forts, nor ammunition, nor sentinels, nor soldiers : 
 but they adopted and practised the maxim, that *' every man 
 should be," not a soldier, but " a Christian .'" Both their lan- 
 guage and their conduct spoke peace to the natives. They 
 openly avowed the doctrine of Christ, that all war was unlaw- 
 ful, and retaliation no tenet of the Gospel. What was the re- 
 sult of this truly Christian policy ? *< The wolf dwelt in peace 
 with the lamb," and the " leopard with the kid" — " the cow and 
 the bear fed together," « and the lion ate straw like the ox !" 
 
43 
 
 In short, no Quaker* who settled on the lands purchased hy Wil- 
 liam PenUf was ever attacked by the Indians. Tlie treaty made 
 between Penn and these savages, " was the only treaty," says 
 a French writer, <» that was ever made without the sanction of 
 an oathf and the only one that never was broken ! .'" The name 
 of Penn is still had in honour among the Delaware Indians, 
 and they have more confidence in his brethren, than in any 
 other people upon earth. 
 
 Such is the result of an experiment, of which the world has 
 made so little account, because it stands in opposition to its 
 maxims, its policy, and its practice ; '< destroys the wisdom of 
 the wise, and brings to naught the understanding of the pru- 
 dent." 
 
 Let us now inquire how far the labours of your missionaries 
 are likely to be useful to the Indians, under the recollection of 
 the wrongs which they have suffered ; for, although they have 
 no historian to hand them down, yet the stream of tradition 
 will transmit their tale of woes, suffered from the Christians, to 
 their remotest posterity. 
 
 1. On a debate in the senate of the United States, on the 
 subject of a grant of twelve thousand acres of land, made by 
 Congress, Anno. 1796, to the society of United Brethren for 
 propagating the Gospel among the heathen. Brown, of Ohio, 
 stated that « owing to massacre, wars and dispersion, together 
 with the vices usually attending a degraded community, the 
 Indians in that region, under the special protection of the 
 brethren, have dwindled to a few families, comprehending in 
 all, perhaps twenty individuals, inhabiting a wretched hamlet 
 called Goshen, on the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, 
 exhibiting an appearance of squalid wretchedness. They show 
 no symptoms of mental improvement, but on the contrary, 
 many marks of their degradation appear in their idleness, 
 want, and habits of intoxication among the men. The osten- 
 sible object of the missions in wliicli Mr. Heckewelder spent 
 above forty years, has totally Jailed.'" j 
 
 2. Extract of a letter written by general James Wilkinson 
 to Owen Biddlc, Philadelphia, dated Pittsburg, Dec. 2i/, 1797 : 
 
 " My late intercourse with various tribes of Indians from 
 this neiglibourhood to Lake Superior, convince me that the 
 
 ♦ No Quaker, knorun. to be such, was ever molested. " The Indians shot 
 him who had the gun," says Story in liis Journal, '* and when they knew the 
 young man they killed was a Quaker, they seemed sorry for it, but blamed turn 
 for carrying a gun. For they knew the Quakers would not fight, or do th«in 
 any harm, and therefore by carrying a gun, they took him for an enemy. "- 
 This instance, which was in after times^ confirms still more strongly all tbkt 
 has been said on this subject, Clsyrkson's PortrjutiU'e, vol. iji, p. 86. 
 t Franklin Gazette. 
 
44 
 
 corruptions of the savages are derived from those who sttjle 
 themselves Christians^ because the further removed from com- 
 munication with the white people, the more honest, temperate, 
 and industrious I have found them. The experiments hereto- 
 fore made to reform the Indian character, have not been well 
 adapted to the object. Our missionaries have, in general, hern 
 narrow minded, ignorant, idle, or interested, and have paid 
 more regard to forms than principles. The education of indi- 
 viduals at our schools, have served only to disgrace us, as th<»se 
 individuals have generally turned out the most profligate of the 
 nation to which they belonged.** 
 
 3. The following are extracts from the speeches of the fa- 
 mous Seneca chief Bed Jacket : 
 
 ♦♦ Brother — We listened to the talk you delivered to us 
 from the council of Black coats in New York — in making up 
 CUP minds, we have looked hack and remembered what has been 
 done in our days, and what o^ir fathers have told us was done in 
 old times. 
 
 «* Brother — Great numbers of Black coats have been among 
 the Indians, and with sweet voices and smiling faces, have of- 
 fered to teach them the religion of the white people. Our 
 brethren in the East listened to them, turned from the religion 
 of their fathers, and took up the religion of the white people. 
 AVhat good has it done ? Are they more happy and more 
 friendly one to another than we are ? No, brother, they are 
 a divided people— we are united — they quarrel about religion — 
 "we live in love and friendship — they drink strong waters — 
 have learnt how to cheat, and practice all the vices of the white 
 people, which disgrace Indians, without imitating the virtues 
 of the white people. Brother — If you are our well-wisher, 
 keep away and do not disturb us.^* 
 
 ** Brother — We do not worship the Great Spirit as the white 
 people do. But we believe the jfonjis of worship are indifferent 
 to the Great Spirit ; it is the homage of a sincere heart that 
 pleases him, and we worship him in this manner." 
 
 In another speech, this shrewd, penetrating chief says : 
 
 •* Brother — Our eyes are open that we see clearly — vou say 
 there is but one way to worship the Great Spirit. If there be 
 but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about 
 it ? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the book ? 
 
 <* Brother — We have been told that you have been preaching 
 to the white people in this place : these people are our neigh- 
 bours; we are acquainted with them ; we will wait a little 
 while, and s<^e w'-a* fffict your preaching has upon them If 
 "we find it does them good, makes them honest f and less disposed 
 
4d 
 
 to cheat Indians, we will then consider again of what you have 
 said." 
 
 The following extract of a letter from this chief, through 
 captain Parish, to governor Clinton, and by him transmitted to 
 the legislature, will throw additional light on this subject. 
 
 " The first object to which he would call the attention of the 
 governor, is the depredations that are daily committed by the 
 white people, upon the most valuable timber on our Reserva- 
 tions. This has been a subject of complaint with us for many 
 years ; but now, and particularly at this season of the year, it 
 has become an alarming evil, and calls for the immediate inter- 
 position of the governor in our behalf. 
 
 ** Our next subject of complaint is the frequent thefts of our 
 horses and cattle by the white people, and their habit of taking 
 and using them whenever they please, and without our leave. 
 These are evils which seem to increase upon us, with the in- 
 crease of our white neighbours, and call loudly for redress. 
 
 "Another evil arising from the pressure of the whites upon 
 us, and our unavoidable communications with them, is the fre- 
 quency with which our chiefs and warriors, and Indians are 
 thrown into Jail, and that too, for the most trifling causes. — In 
 our hunting and fishing too we are greatly interrupted by the 
 whites: our venison is stolen from the trees — our hunfing camps 
 fired into, and wc have been warned that we shall no longer be 
 permitted to pursue the deer in these forests, which were so 
 lately all our own. But another thing recommended to us has 
 created great confusion among us, and is making us a quarrel- 
 some and divided people, and that is the introduction of preach- 
 ers into our nation. These black coats contrive to get the con- 
 sent of some of the Indians to preach among us, and whenever 
 this is the case, confusion and disorder are sure to follow, and 
 the encroachments of the whites upon our lands are the invaria- 
 ble consequences. The governor must not think Jiard of me 
 for speaking thus of the preachers. I have observed their pro- 
 gress, and when I look back to see what has taken place of old, 
 I perceive that whenever they came among the Indians, they 
 were the forerunners of their dispersion : that they always 
 excited enmities and quarrels among them ; that they intro- 
 duced the white people on their lands, by whom they were 
 robbed and plundered of their property, and that the Indians 
 were sure to dwindle and decrease, and be driven back, in pro- 
 portion to the number of preachers that came among them. — 
 Besides, we have been threatened by Mr. Hyde (one of your 
 missionaries from New York) who came among us as a school 
 master, and a teacher of our children, but has now become a 
 
46 
 
 black coat, and refuses to teach them any more,— that unless we 
 listen to his preaching, and become Christians, we will be turn- 
 ed off our lands. We shall never be at peace while he is among 
 us. There are now eleven white families living on our Reser- 
 vation at Buffalo ; this is wrong and ought not to be permitted. 
 The great source of all our grievances is that the white men 
 are among us. Let them be removed and we will be happy 
 and contented among ourselves." — « We now cry to the go- 
 vernor for help, and hope that he will attend to our complaints, 
 and speedily give us redress." 
 
 Shortly after this letter became public, there appeared in 
 the Presbyterian Magazine under the head of " Indian Affairs," 
 the following remarks : 
 
 The author in alluding to the aid given by the President and 
 Col. M'Kinney to the cause of missions, says : " We tender 
 the President and Col. M<Kinney our hearty thanks, and in 
 so doing are confident that we express the gratitude, not only 
 of the different Presbyterian churches with their fifteen hun- 
 dred ministers in the United States, but of all the Christian 
 congregations in our land. We have heard but one dissenting 
 voice indeed from any quarter, and that has just sounded forth 
 from Red Jacket, one of the Seneca chiefs in the state of New 
 York. We strongly suspect, however, that Red Jacket has 
 been prompted by some enemy of Christianity, and that some 
 insidious infidel indited his letter, while he professed to act only 
 as an amanuensis ; or else that the chief designed to please his 
 governor by following his fashion of attacking the administra- 
 tion of the federal government. At any rate the letter was 
 transmitted to the legislature of New York by governor Clin- 
 ton, and thus has come before the world j when he might have 
 kept it on the files of state for his own private information or 
 guidance. If Mr. Clinton, who is in our esteem possessed of 
 a powerful mind and influence, would fill the chair of the 
 Union, we would advise him not to wound the feelings of the 
 Christian people of the United States, by giving currency to 
 the pagan philosophy of Red Jacket, that Christianity would 
 be no blessing to the Indians. If this Indian chief writes to in- 
 form him, that the President wishes the Senecas to become 
 Christians, through the preaching of the truth, even this his 
 excellency governor Clinton, might have political motives for 
 keeping to himself. There are too many hundreds of Christian 
 ministers in the state of New York, for Mr. Clinton to succeed 
 by a dead set against them, even in the Red Jacket, and with 
 the bow and arrows of an Indian chief J' 
 
47 
 
 The Indran chief in this letter complains of t!ic ilcprcdationa 
 committed by the whites upon the timber of his subjects, the 
 Indians J the stealing of their property, and throwing them 
 into jail on trifling occasions. Now these are no small griev- 
 ances, and might, properly enough, come before the legislature 
 of the state. In forwarding the letter, therefore, to that body, 
 the governor acted in conformity to his station, and only dis- 
 charged a duty required of him by the Constitution of the state. 
 JBut in doing so, he has, incidentally, made some exposures not 
 very palatable to the clergy : and for this, the influence of all 
 your fifteen hundred ministers is threatened, to destroy his 
 political existence ! ! Such a prostitution of ministerial cha- 
 racter — such a degree of priestly arrogance, is without a pa- 
 rallel under our republic ! Such is the spirit manifested by 
 men professing to be led by the example, and to teach to others 
 the humbling precepts of a meek and lowly Saviour ! Had 
 these men the civil power on their side, it is easy to discern 
 what the fate of those would be, who should fall under their 
 displeasure ! 
 
 The statement made by Red Jacket in this letter^ is the same 
 in substance, that he made before in his speeches ; that it was 
 dictated «*by some enemy to Christianity," is therefore an idol 
 fancy. They are statements and conclusions too, which are 
 warranted by all the testimonies which we have advanced, and 
 will be corroborated by all who have any knowledge and pene- 
 tration in your missionary concerns among the Indians. But 
 it was much easier to issue insulting threats against governor 
 Clinton, and to setup the silly, impotent, clerical cry of " infi- 
 del" against Red Jacket and his supposed *« amanuensis," than 
 to have refuted the charges made in his letter. This untutored 
 Indian sees <* clearly" — his penetrating eye pierces through 
 the <♦ black coats," and he has the good sense of the country 
 on his side, in believing that they are v/holly destitute of tlie 
 qualifications necessary to reform the character of his people. 
 How much better it had been for your ministers to have pro- 
 fited by his instructions — returned home, and conformed them- 
 selves in the^rs^ place to the precepts of the « book ;" learned 
 to " walk humbly, love mercy, do justice" to Indians, and then 
 exerted their " moral influence" upon their white brethren, 
 whose avarice and cupidity have ever been prompting them to 
 invade the rights and property of these defenceless people. 
 
 The question at issue, is not, as the writer in the Magazine 
 would fainly make believe, whether or not Christianity would 
 be a blessing to the Indians ? No one doubts this : but whe- 
 ther your theologically educated ministers arc instruments 
 
48 
 
 rightly prepared for diffusing it among them, and whether past 
 or present experience furnishes any rational ground for hope, 
 that they will succeed in it? I might, if it were necessary, 
 add many facts and authorities in addition to those already ad- 
 vanced, to prove the negative of these questions ; but I deem 
 it needless. Before I dismiss the subject, however, I will 
 draw the attention of (he reader to two other queries : Why do 
 these men manifest so much acerbity and unbecoming viru- 
 lence towards those who will not unite with them in their 
 schemes ? And why are they induced to pursue them with a 
 zeal so unremitting, and under auspices so unfavorable, and 
 with such an overwhelming mass of experience against them ? 
 
 The following extracts from a pamphlet on Missions by John 
 Taylor, an aged Baptist minister, will throw some light on this 
 subject : 
 
 « About eight or ten years past," says the author, <« and 
 previous to any Baptist Missionary Society in Kentucky, two 
 young men by the names of Mills and Schermerhorn, being on 
 a missionary tour, from the Preshyterian board of missions in 
 the East, by their direction were to travel through the states of 
 Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Natchez settlements, and 
 New Orleans, and then return to the board who sent them, 
 make a report, by a faithful journal, of all the Missionary and 
 Bible Societies they had formed, all the money they had col- 
 lected, their success in preaching, &c. They were at my 
 house about one day and night. They gave me a full history 
 of the ordination and mission of Messrs. Judson and Rice, and 
 the mighty effect it had on the people of JVew England ; and par- 
 ticularly this good effect, that many poor ministers could 
 scarcely get their bread before, but by stirring up the people in 
 the mission cause, and getting them in the habit of giving their 
 money, it was now chetrfidly comm^micated by thousands, so that 
 ministers who staid at home, were now richly supplied. They 
 assured me, if I would only stir up the people to missions and 
 Bible Society matters, I should find a great change in money af- 
 fairs in favour of the preachers ; urging by questions like this : 
 do you not know that when the springs are once opened, they 
 will always run ? Only, said they, get the people in the habit 
 of giving their money for any religious use, and they will con- 
 tinue to appropriate for all sacred purposes !" 
 
 « The very many modes and artful measures of those great 
 men (missionaries) to get money, are disgustful to common mo- 
 desty. They begin with Missionary Societies. Then they 
 create a great board of different officers, and then select the 
 most vigorous and artful agent they can find, to create more 
 
40 
 
 societievS of difterent grades, as Female Societies, Cent Socie- 
 ties, Mite Societies, (Jliildren Societies, and even Negro 
 Societii s, both fiee and bond, besides the sale of books of va- 
 rious kinds, and in some instances the sale of images. Every 
 missionary in a foreign country, is authorised to follow all these 
 arts, as wtll as common begging, to get money, so that no set 
 of men ever yet seen on the earth, manifest a greater thirslby 
 tlies*' various modes of peddling to get money. — Their shame- 
 ful cravings are insatiable. How very difterent are the cha- 
 racters of these men from the ancient missionaries of the cross 
 of Christ; for they went forth, taking nothing from the 
 Gentiles." 
 
 " In Missouri," continues the writer, **the missionaries 
 pursue all the shameful measures to get money which they 
 adopt in otiier countries, though a new frontier country, many 
 of the people poor, and all of them straightened for necessaries. 
 Their shameful trade of begging disgusts the people wherever 
 they go. They will beg for money for the interests of the mis- 
 sion — to print the ♦♦ Luminary," — to build and finish their fine 
 meeting house, when half the churches in the country have no 
 house of any sort to worship God in. They will beg for money 
 to educate young men in Dr. Staughton's Theological School, 
 to make more missionaries. They will beg for supplies in 
 their own families, both in food and furniture ; in short, their 
 whole trade is begging.' 
 
 The author above quoted, from his station, (a minister) had 
 a good opportunity of knowing the real character of many of 
 the missionaries. He relates several anecdotes of some of 
 the leading men among them, which places their passion for 
 filthy lucre, fame, or power, in a strong point of view. This 
 is. however, no new thing. A volume of facts might be selected 
 from history, illustrating the mercenary character of a hireling 
 priesthood in every age. One occurs to me which I will men- 
 tion. In Virginia, previous to the revolution, the Baptists and 
 Quakers who came into that state to preach the gospel, were 
 cruelly persecuted by the Episcopalians. Now at this time 
 there was a law of the state, granting to the latter an annual 
 stipend of sixteen thousand pounds sterling in tobacco. This 
 law was afterwards repealed ; and what followed ? These zealous 
 defenders of orthodoxy deserted their churches, and left the ark 
 of their God in the hands of the Philistines ! ! 
 
 Now, the zeal manifested by your ministers, according to the 
 ingenuous confession of Mills and Schermerhorn. rests much on 
 the same foundation as that of the orthodox clergy of Virginia. 
 •* Only stir up the people to Mission and Bible Society matters,'' 
 
50 
 
 say these missionaries, " and there will be a great change i« 
 money matters in favour of the preachers at home." *' The 
 mission of Judson and Rice had a <' mighty effect on the people 
 of New England," money is ♦' now communicated by thou- 
 sands." The people are " brought into the habit of giving 
 their money." " The springs once opened will always run 
 for all sacred purposes" — and " preachers at home" will be 
 " richly supplied." Here we have a clue by which to com- 
 prehend the overflowing zeal— the rage manifested by these 
 men, against all who are averse from their schemes. Thus your 
 minister fears that the influence of the Quakers will tend to 
 dry up those precious " springs^' which are now running so 
 freely ; his indignation is thereby kindled- — even those eternal 
 decrees, which he stands pledged to maintain, are but a se- 
 condary consideration, and filled with ire, he exclaims : " The 
 perdition of the heathen lies not on God, but on your Society 
 and the other enemies of missions. God is unwilling, but you 
 are willing the heathen should perish. You — you withhold 
 from him the means of salvation, and doom the heathen to de- 
 struction ! !" Repository, vol ii. No. 1. 
 
 **The genuine spirit of missions is ^le true spirit of the 
 gospel," say the committee of the American board. " It was 
 the spirit of missions," echoes your minister, *' that brought a 
 Saviour into our world." This position I freely grant ; but let 
 us compare this " true spirit of the gospel" with the spirit of 
 modern missions. 
 
 1. Christ in sending forth his disciples commanded them to 
 take neither purse, nor scrip : but 
 
 To prepare, to equip, and to land each missionary, in our 
 day, costs the British (and no doubt the American) public six 
 hundred pounds, or two thousand six hundred and sixty-six dol- 
 lars, and from one thousiind to six thousand dollars per annum, 
 afterwards. Vid. Ch. Repos. vol. i. page 165. 
 
 2. Christ commanded his disciples to salute no man by the 
 tvay ; but 
 
 Our modern missionaries on the contrary, salute those they 
 meet, with the cry of money ! money ! 
 
 3. Our Lord's missionaries, on returning, reported that they 
 had lacked nothing ; but 
 
 Our moderns, (take Ward and Rice for examples) report, 
 that they have lacked many things, and their cry is still mo- 
 ney ! money ! 
 
 4. The apostles of Jesus declared that even the devils were 
 subject unto them j but 
 
5i 
 
 Those in our day, exhibit strong marks, that they arc, them- 
 selves subject to the demons, Pride, Avarice, and Ambition. 
 
 5. The missionaries of our Lord were sent out as " iambs 
 among wolves ;" but 
 
 Ours appear rather as wolves among lambs, fleecing their 
 flocks, and still crying money ! money ! whilst their Christian 
 brethren, are engaged in slaughtering thousands of those 
 amongst whom they are sent! ! Leaving the reader to extend 
 the contrast at his leisure, I proceed to notice, briefly, the 
 subject of 
 
 BIBLE SOCIETIES. 
 
 These societies are often composed of discordant materials. 
 Professor and profane ; faithless and believing ; those who 
 read and those who reject the Bible, if they have but money, 
 and are willing to part with it, are acceptable members. To be 
 handsomely noticed in the papers; to receive votes of thanks j 
 popularity ; fame ; all have their weight in drawing together 
 these associations. These motives act with peculiar force upon 
 the female portion of the community ; and thus your ministers, 
 playing the part of father Cotton with the *' Parisian ladies," 
 have taken hold of the vanity of the sex, and are using it as an 
 immense engine to promote their own power and influence. All 
 this is too palpable to need illustration. If such combinations, 
 founded on such a basis can advance the Redeemer's kingdom^ 
 our moderns may boast of having discovered the secret of re- 
 conciling the most glaring contradictions ; of accomplishing 
 ends by opposite means ; means equally at war with right 
 reason, Scripture, and all former experience. 
 
 In order to unite all denominations in this work, the Bibles 
 published by these societies are without comments. This is very 
 well in itself. The doctrines of the Christian religion were 
 originally adapted and delivered to the most simple and illiterate. 
 They required no expounders nor interpreters then ; neither 
 do they now. The meanest capacity can now, as then, by the 
 grace of God, fully understand and profit by them. All the 
 researches of human learning and human wisdom, have only 
 tended to " darken council by words without knowledge," to 
 obscure the meaning, and impair the usefulness of these divine 
 productions. But the great objection intended, ostensibly to be 
 removed, by printing this book without comments, still remain*. 
 It is put into the hands of your theologians, to be carrfed to 
 the heathen, and is thus accompanied by living, or rather 
 speaking commentators, whose interpretations and comments 
 are not less divtrscy confused, and contradictor ij, than those 
 which are written. 
 
The Bible Avas, at one periotl, wrested by the clergy out of 
 the hands of the people, — to read it was, to an <' illiterate head," 
 a capital offence. IMiis, among the many bold strokis of 
 priestcraft, was one of the bohlest. It was resorted to under 
 the flimsy pretext of preventing heresy and schism^ (the watch 
 words of the priesthood in every age,) but, in fact, intended to 
 render the people wholly dependent on the clergy for tlieir re- 
 ligion, which the latter were thus enabled to deal out to them 
 on their own conditions. ^ 
 
 By the irresistible influx of light and knowledge, this spe- 
 cies of clerical policy is now exploded; but your theologi-^ns, 
 who are never at a loss for expedients, have invented another, 
 which is now in the full tide of successful experiment, and if 
 permitted to go into complete operation, will equally subserve 
 their ambitious views This scheme has its foundation on the 
 good old Catholic aphorism^ that «< Religion is the last thing thai 
 ought to be entrusted to the heads oj ignorant ?new." Now if the 
 people can only be brought to believe this, the object of your 
 ministers will be nearly accomplished. A happier thought could 
 not havR been conceived ; and it ought,* I think, to be engra- 
 ven upon the escutcheons of every individual of the Levitical 
 tribe, and inscribed in letters of brass upon the doors of every 
 apartment in your theological schools. Now as this principle 
 is likely to spread and become generally acknowledged, we 
 need not be surprised to find the clergy forward in promoting 
 Bible Societies, contrary to their former practice : for by this 
 means their empire will be extended ; the people, indeed, will 
 have the Bible, but they are not, under the operation of this 
 principle, to look there for their religion^ " it is the last thing," 
 you say, <" that ought to be entrusted to their illiterate heads ;" 
 and the only difference between Catholicism and Protestant- 
 ism, is, that our religion is transferred for *« holy keeping" 
 from the cloister to the seminarif. This is the grand Membic 
 where it is prepared, and the " poor, pious young men'' are 
 the receivers 'And retailers; and if we do not choose to pay them 
 well for it, we may go without it, and incur the odium and 
 ignominy attached to heretics and infidels ! ! 
 
 There is but one thing wanting in this splendid scheme to 
 fill up the measure, if that be possible, of ministerial ambition, 
 an«l that is to bring the civil power j inio the scheme. This grand 
 
 * I am, I think, aware of the danger of this weapon, and especially in treat- 
 ing of a serious subject. But the prophet Elijah resorted to it in a case similar 
 to the one before me ; and I can herein adopt the language of Juvenal : " Di- 
 ficile est fatirum non scribere." 
 
 t I shall hereafter prove that the Presbyterians bare been endeavouring to 
 effect this object. 
 
53 
 
 ilesideratiim once accomplished, the secular arm once enlisted 
 on youi" side, and Ihc people will then be conipdied to pay for 
 preaclung, whether good or bad, and on such terms as priestly 
 avarice may choose to impose. 
 
 Does nut past experience justify the conclusion, that the Bible 
 in the hands of your theologians, will be of no benefit, but rather 
 an injury to the heathen ? Take a survey of Christendom, and 
 behold the tiiousand sects by which they have divided and dis- 
 tracted it. Consult ecclesiastical iiistory ; r&ad the contentions, 
 strifes, wranglings, persecutions, massacres, and burnings, 
 Avhich had their beginnings, from the moment preaching be- 
 came a traffic and theology a science ! From thirty to fifty 
 millions of souls have first and last been sacrificed, for their 
 opinions only, at the instigation of theological hirelings, with 
 the Bible in their hands as their death warrant 1 1 And no one 
 can tell when these horrid scenes would have closed, had not 
 the civil power — had not those <* illiterate heads" who are 
 <* not to be entrusted with religicm," stept in between these 
 Right Reverend gentlemen, and thus stopt them from ctttting 
 each others throats ! ! ! 
 
 Abstract the labours of Peter, and John, and Luke, and 
 Matthew, and Paul, who, although a theologian, laid it all 
 aside, esteeming <* it as dross and dung," and other disinterested 
 worthies, down to the present day, whose illiterate heads, like 
 those of the disciples, were strangers to your theology ; abstract 
 the labours of such men as these, and what have we left? A 
 mass of lumber made up of discordant creeds and catechisms, 
 and divinty ; and all well supported by an ample practical com- 
 mentary which the reader will find in the « Book oj Martyrs.''' 
 
 What the gospel will effect among the heathens, under the 
 spurious garb of unavailing rights and ceremonies^ has already 
 been tried on an extensive scale, as I have shown, by the Ca- 
 tholics. The gods of the east bowed down for a time, but it 
 was only to rise again with renewed vigor. Why repeat the 
 hopeless experiment ? Has the shedding of rivers of their blood. 
 by the professors of Christianity, opened the way for its intro- 
 duf'tion ? Or do you argue that the religion your ministers now 
 offer them is the true, whilst that of the Catholics was the false 
 religion ? 1 answer, they are essentially the same. What dif- 
 ference to the heathen, whether the Eucharist be presented to 
 him under the notion of a con or a ifrans-substantiation ? Whe- 
 ther his ablutions be performed in the sacred waters of his own 
 native streams, or under the con.secraferf /orrns of Catholic or 
 Protestant administration? Tn short, whether his religion be 
 meted out to him from the Cloister or the Seminary ? The re- 
 
51 
 
 suit is the same, he is a proselyte to empty foi*ms nierely. But 
 there is an evil of no small magnitude which will grow out of 
 these abortive schemes; the time will thereby be rendered 
 more remote^ than if they had not been tried, when, by the 
 preaching, " in the demonstration of the spirit," of another 
 Peter or a Paul, that God whom the heathen now ignorantly 
 worships, shall be more fully revealed to him, as a Being who 
 is every where present, — a God "in whom he lives, and moves, 
 and has his being." 
 
 Many more reasons might be offered in answer to the charge 
 made by your minister against the Quakers and others, for 
 refusing to join your Missionary and Bible Societies : but as 
 the subject is necessarily more or less interwoven with those 
 matters of which I am yet to treat, I will close this letter, and 
 take my leave. 
 
LETTER III. 
 
 OF PRESBYTERIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 " Physician heal thyself.''^ — New Testament. 
 
 *' Choose you this day whom ye will serve." — " I have set before you life and 
 -death, blessing and cursing ; Uierefore choose Ufe.»» 
 
 Josh, xxiv, 15 — Deut, xxx. 19. 
 
 ANY person who will take the trouble to peruse the Pres- 
 byterian publications of the present day, cannot fail to discern 
 that great exertions are making to propagate and extend your 
 principles throughout the United States. I shall hereafter 
 show that you have carried your views so far on this subject, 
 as to aim at a religious establishment,* hy aunion of church and 
 state^ to be achieved through the medium of your colleges and 
 seminaries. It is a fact worthy of note, that the missionaries 
 sent out sometime ago by the Presbyterian Board, to *» spy out 
 the nakedness of the land ;" to make an estimate of the number 
 of ministers that were wanting^ and for other purposes, passed 
 over the Baptist, Methodist^ and Quaker preachers, as unworthy 
 of note. " Thus we see," says Taylor in his Thoughts on Mis- 
 sionSf " how far truth is sacred to these missionary men, speak- 
 ing of a county as almost a blank as to religion, which contains 
 upwards of thirty Baptist cliurches, and at least twenty- four 
 ordained preachers." Added to this, your writers and preachers, 
 through the pulpit and the press, are endeavouring to cast an 
 odium upon the doctrines of other religious professions. No 
 further apology, therefore, is deemed necessary, for bringing 
 feefore the public, at the present moment, a concise view of the 
 master-tenets of your own creed ; with the very important en- 
 quiry, how far their practical operation, with or without the 
 aid of the civil power, as tested by former experience, will be 
 likely to add to the present happiness, or to brighten the 
 
 ♦ See the communications of Ignatius Thomson in the Fourth Letter. 
 
a6 
 
 future prospects of our republic. In prosecuting the inquiry, 1 
 shall adopt a very different course from that whirh n our minister 
 has adopted in the Repository: 1 shall aAtluce testimony. ani\ state 
 the premises on which my conclusions are foundt d ; hencr, if I 
 sliould fall into errors, the impartial reader will be enabled to 
 detect them, and do you justice. 
 
 The most prominent feature, and that which fixes ti»e cha- 
 racter of your system, and arrests the mind of every inquirer, 
 is the doctrine commonly styled 
 
 PREDESTINATION. 
 
 The principles of predestination, or unconditional election 
 and reprobation, are grounded upon the eternal decrees of God, 
 as laid down in your " Confession of Faith," and to which I 
 shall presently advert. This doctrine of thr decrees, is the 
 same, essentially, as that o( necessity, or fate ; the latter term 
 being derived from the word effatum, i. e. a decree pronounced 
 by God. We find nothing of it in the Christian church, until 
 the fifth century, when Augustine in his contest with Pelagius, 
 dropt, incautiously, some expressions which were afterwards 
 taken hold of by Dominicus, a friar, and the monks of his or- 
 der ; and being at a later period, improved on by John Calvin, 
 the system has from him received the name of Calvinism. 
 
 This doctrine prevails among some of the heathen nations, 
 muler the tevm fate. It occupies a distinguished place in the 
 Mahometan creed : but I know of no Christian sect, but yours, 
 if we except the Baptists, who manifest any partiality towards 
 it at this day. The following quotations, made from your most 
 noted Calvinistic writers, will present to the reader a compre- 
 hensive view of this article of your faith. 
 
 *• I say that by the ordination and will of God, Adam fell. 
 God would liave man to fall. Man is blinded by the will and 
 commandment of God. We refer the cause of hardening us 
 to God. Every action and motion of every creature is so go- 
 verned by the bidden council of God, that nothing can come to 
 pass, but what was ordained by him : they are so governed by 
 the will of God, that they are carried on straight to the mark 
 which he has foreordained." Calv. Instit. 
 
 ** God hath predestinated not only unto damnation, but also 
 unto the causes of it." " The decree of God cannot be ex- 
 cluded from the causes of corruption." JBesa. 
 
 " It is certain that God is the first cause of obduration. — 
 Reprobates are held so fast under God Almighty's decree, that 
 they cannot but sin and perish." Zanchius. 
 
57 
 
 " It is tire opinion of our doctors, tiiat God did inevitably 
 decree the temptation and fall of man. The creature indeed 
 sinneth necessarily, by the most just judgment of God. Our 
 men do most rightly affirm that the fall of man was necessary 
 and inevitable, because of God's decree." Par(eus» 
 
 *« Reprobate persons are absolutely ordained to this two-fold 
 end, to undergo everlasting punishment and necessarily to 
 sin, and therefore to sin that they may be justly punished." 
 Piscator. 
 
 *« God procures cursings, adulteries, lyings." 
 
 « God doth incline and force the wills of wicked men into 
 great sins. He supplies v/icked men with opportunities of sin- 
 ning, and induces their hearts thereto. He blinds, deceives, 
 and seduces them. He, by his working on their hearts, bends 
 and stirs them up to do evil." P. Martyr. 
 
 *f God moveth the robber to kill. He killeth, God forcing 
 him thereunto. The devil and wicked men are so held in on 
 every side, by the hand of God, that they cannot conceive, or 
 execute any mischief, any further than God himself doth not 
 only permit but command. Nor are they only held in fetters, 
 but compelled also, as with a bridle, to perform obedience to 
 those commands." Zuinglius, 
 
 *< God moves, excites, and stirs up men to do that which is 
 evil, and puts sin into the heart by a positive, creative influ- 
 ence." HopkinSf a modern. 
 
 " God knew that no motives would be sufficient to form Pha- 
 raoh's moral character ; he therefore determined to operate in 
 his heart itself, and to cause him to put forth certain evil voli- 
 tions, in view of certain external motives." Emmons, a 
 modern. 
 
 Such is an outline of the doctrine of predestination : a doc- 
 trine which you have, endeavoured, as far as your power ex- 
 tended, in time past, to force upon mankind by various acts of 
 cruel persecution. Thus the Armenians in Holland, having 
 struck the decrees out of their creed, because they found them 
 irrational and unscriptural, brought on a persecution from the 
 Calvinists, which they kept up for a number of years. In 
 England, imprisonment was threatened by an act of the Pres- 
 bylerian ]iarliamcnt, to such as maintaincdt *' that man, by na- 
 ture, hath free will U) turn to GoiV Y id. JV'eal's History, vol. 
 iii. p. 497. Mosheim, vol. v. chap. iii. 
 
 if the truth of the aforesaid premises be admitted, it follows 
 necessarily that God is the sole author and instigator of all the 
 sins of men. To every one but a Calvinist, this is demonstra- 
 ble. If God forceth the robber to kill ; procures adulteries, 
 
 H 
 
58 
 
 cursings and lyings ; supplies wicked men with opportunities 
 of sinning; bends and stirs them up to do evil, so that they 
 cannot conceive, or contrive, or execute any mischief but by 
 his commands : — If God, I say, does all this, and is not to be 
 reputed the grand cause of all wickedness ; the most cruel and 
 malicious Being of which the human mind can form any con- 
 ception, then words have lost their use and meaning, and 
 ceased to represent ideas ! ! 
 
 To deny this blasphemous imputation on the moral character 
 of the Deity, as an unavoidable result of predestination, is to 
 put all rational induction at defiance ; it is to deny any self- 
 evident proposition — as, that man is a thinking being, or that 
 the sun shines in the heavens. I am aware that you pretend 
 to discard the authors I have quoted, as somewhat out of date, 
 or not altogether orthodox on this subject. I will reply to this 
 evasion, by appealing to " The Constitution of the Presbyte- 
 rian Church in the United States of America," revised and 
 republished so late as the year 1821. In the " Confession of 
 Faith" contained therein, I find the following articles : 
 
 1. <* God from all eternity did, bj the most wise and holy 
 counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain what- 
 soever comes to pass." Chap. iii. Art. 1. 
 
 2. <*By the decree of God for the manifestation of his glory, 
 some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, 
 and others foreordained to everlasting death." Chap. iii. 
 Art. 3. 
 
 3. *♦ These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreor- 
 dained, are particularly and unchangeably designed ; and their 
 number is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either in- 
 creased or diminished." Chap. iii. Art. 4. 
 
 4. *♦ Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, 
 God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to 
 his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and 
 good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlast- 
 ing glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any 
 foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of 
 them, or an> other thing in the creature, as conditions, or 
 causes moving him thereunto, and all to the praise of his glo- 
 rious grace." Chap. iii. Art. 5. 
 
 5. " As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he, 
 by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained 
 all the means thereunto"—" neither are any other redeemed 
 by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified and 
 saved, but the elect cmly.'* Chap. iii. Art. 6. 
 
 6. « The rest of mankind God was pleased according to the 
 
59 
 
 unsearchable counsel of liis own will, whereby he extcndeth or 
 withholdcth mercy as he picaseth, for the glory of his sove- 
 reign power over his creatures, to pass by and to ordain them, 
 to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious 
 justice." Ch. iii. 7. 
 
 7. " By the decree of God all things come to pass immutably 
 and infallibly." Ch. v. 2 
 
 8. •* God did from all eternity decree tojustify all the elect."* 
 Chap. xi. 1. 
 
 9. *• As for those wicked and ungodly men wliom God as a 
 righteous judge, for former sins, doth blind and harden^ from 
 them he not only withlnddeth his grace, whereby they might 
 have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon 
 in their hearts ; but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which 
 they had." Ch. v. 6. 
 
 10. '* From this original corruption, we are utterly indis- 
 posed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly 
 inclined to all evil." Ch. vi. 4. 
 
 The above articles furnish us with the views of morfcrn Pres- 
 byterians on predestination ; and I think it may be demon- 
 strated, that ground is hereby furnished to sustain all that I 
 have quoted from Calvinistic writers on the subject. 
 
 In looking at the moral state of the world, it is manifest, 
 
 * Election and irresistable grace, are the grand features of the Antinomian 
 creed : " As the elect,** they say, " cannot fall from grace, nor forfeit the di- 
 vine favour, so it fellows, that the wicked actions they commit, and the viola- 
 tions of the divine law, with which they are chargeable, are not really sinful, 
 nor are to be considered as instances of their departing from the law of God ; 
 and that consequently, they have no occasion, either to forsake their sins, or t« 
 break them off by repentance.' » — Moah, vol. v. p 412. 
 
 " They maintain that the elect cannot possibly do any thing displeasing to 
 (iod, and that consequently no sins, however monstrous, would at all impair 
 or endanger their everlasting blessedness." — Grant s Siwimari/, vol. ii. p. 499. 
 
 Now 1 see no essential difference between the Antinomian and Presbyterian 
 creeds ; they agree in the following particulars ; 
 
 1. The elect cannot fall from grace. 
 
 3. " They have no occasion, agreeably to either doctrine, to forsake their 
 sins, or to break them off by repentance," because " God did, from all eter- 
 nity, decree tojustify all the elect " 
 
 3. Consequently no sins, agi-eeably to the doctrine of Presbyterianism, can 
 at all " impair or endanger their everlasting blessedness." 
 
 The only shade of difl'erence that appears in the two creeds in these master 
 articles, is, that the Presbyterians hold that the sins of the elect are, and the 
 Antinomians that they are not, displeasing to God : but in order to establish 
 even this difference, it is incumbent on the former to show how an act commit- 
 ted agreeably to that which the divine will had eternally decreed, can be f//«- 
 pleasing to God, and thus, at the same time, consistent with his tuiU ■' ■' The 
 effects on the morals, of such a doctrine, when left to its own operations on 
 the corrupt will of man, must be so obviously dangerous to every reflecting 
 mind, as to need no illustrations. 
 
60 
 
 that the evil greatly predominates over the good ; and hence, 
 that the greatest portion of men's actions are sinful. Now, if 
 it be asked, whence come these wicked actions ? Your Confes- 
 sion answers, <' by the decree of God;''* for it declares that *' by 
 the decree of God all things come to pass immutably and infal- 
 libly ;" and this too, we are clearly made to understand, 
 without any foresight of any thing in the creature " as condi- 
 tions or causes moving him thereunto." 
 
 Again ; your Confession declares that God has foreordained 
 the non-elect to eternal death. This is the end decreed from 
 all eternity. What are the means ? As though your divines 
 feared that the world might mistake their meaning, and 
 attribute something to the tvill oj the creature^ *< the means 
 thereunto" they declare are also decreed. But they go fur- 
 ther, and determine to leave nothing undecided — they point 
 out the very means which God has decreed to effect his dread- 
 ful purpose : that is to say ; first, he has created men " utterly 
 indisposed to all good, and wholly inclined to ail evil ;" 2d. He 
 <« withholdeth his grace^ whereby they might have been enlightened 
 in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts.** Now, 
 a more infallible scheme than this, could not have been con- 
 trived, even by Satan clothed with omnipotency, to «* cause 
 the robber to kill," and to <♦ procure adultery, cursings, and 
 lyings ! !'* All the difference, therefore, between the ancient 
 Calvinists and modern Presbyterians is, that the former per- 
 ceiving clearly the full tendency and scope of this doctrine, 
 have had the courage and candour to declare it without reserve, 
 and to come out openly and manfully in defence of it ; whilst 
 the latter, although not less unwilling to throw away this idol, 
 yet, perceiving that its hideous deformities are more and more 
 apparent, they have become ashamed to exhibit it in open day.* 
 This pusillanimity on your part, is rather a favourable omen : 
 and being surrounded by other Christian sects, of more correct 
 and enlightened views, we may reasonably hope that the period 
 is not very far distant, when you will be prevailed with to 
 abandon these pernicious errors. Permit me once more to call 
 your attention to the character and consequences of your doc- 
 trine, as fairly set forth in the foregoing pages. 
 
 1st. It is abhorrent to reason. 
 
 That God in creating man, should have given him an intel- 
 
 * It is no uncommon thing for modern Presbyterian writers, when hard 
 pressed by their opponents, and the blapshemy and impiety of their doctrines 
 fairly exposed, to cry out "scandal," "calumny," &c., without, however, 
 being able to prove any thing in the reasonings and deductions of the opposing 
 party, but truth and fair dealing. This is the last miserable shift of expiring 
 error. 
 
61 
 
 ligence which revolts at his providence and purpose towards ijis 
 rational creation, is not one of the least absurdities that grow 
 out of this doctrine. " There are some things," says an emi- 
 nent writer, *<that are found in the Christian religion which 
 are above reason, but nothing which ought to he contrary to it.'* 
 Yet, it is impossible for the rational soul to contemplate the 
 doctrine of unconditional election and reprobation, without 
 being plunged into a chaos of gloom, horror, and despondency. 
 All definite ideas of right and wrong, truth and error, are here 
 confounded ; and caprice and injustice, cruelty and wrath, are 
 the principal links of the Calvinistic chain that connects God 
 with his creatures; and in their moral government and dispo- 
 sition, neither men, nor angels, nor devils, exert any agency 
 whatever, except in entire subserviency to God's irresistible 
 decrees, framed before the foundation of the world. Decrees by 
 which millions of rational creatures, whom God's providence 
 has brought into existence, have been from all eternity " un- 
 changeably designed" to everlasting misery, and, to use your 
 own words, <* without any foresight of any thing in the creature, 
 as conditions or causes moving him thereunto^* I! 
 
 2d. This doctrine blasphemes the character of God, and 
 equally shocks our moral feelings, and that " inspeaking word 
 of grace and truth," which he has placed in the heart. 
 
 God is transformed, by this doctrine, into a tyrant infinitely 
 more capricious, cruel, and wicked, than any earthly despot 
 that can be conceived, seeing that omnipotence is superadded 
 to his attributes, and eternal duration to his vindictive punish- 
 ment ! ! He is hereby represented as dividing all the human 
 species, which he proposed to bring into existence, into two 
 unequal classes ; the smaller number his caprice loads with 
 favours, but upon the larger portion he pours [his curses, his 
 vengeance, and his wrath, and that without the least regard to 
 the merit or demerit of either party ! ! ! That these principles 
 shock the moral feelings, needs no illustration ; and I appeal 
 to all those who have felt any thing of the grace of Gf)d — of th6 
 incomes of his love flowing through their souls, if they do not 
 experience it expanding and extending to every individual of 
 the human family. Yea, the humble Christian, under the ope- 
 ration of this sacred influence, embraces every man as his bro- 
 ther, without respect to persons, and views him as an equal 
 candidate with himself for the final enjoyment of immortality 
 and eternal life. As an argumentum ad hominenif I consider this 
 as furnishing a most irrefragable and conclusive testimony 
 against the fallacy of your pernicious system* It is this sort 
 of evidence, which, under our next head we shall find abun- 
 
OS 
 
 tlantly iurnisheil by the prophets and apostles, and vindicating 
 the character of God and his Christ from the foulest imputations 
 that men could have invented. 
 
 3d. This doctrine is contrary to the Scriptures. 
 
 If, according to your Confession of Faith, the number of the 
 elect, and the number of the reprobate ones are both "so cer- 
 tain and definite, that they cannot be either increased nor 
 diininislied," how are we to understand all those threaten- 
 ings, admoniti<ms, promises, warnings, exhortations, persua- 
 sions, and intreaties, found throughout the Bible, all implying 
 a condition^ a state of trial and probation, wherein the subject 
 hath a free will and power, to accept or reject the terms of his 
 reconciliation and restoration unto God ? 
 
 Moreover, when God asks " why will ye die, why will ye not 
 come unto me?" When he declares to man that his ** destruc- 
 tion is of himself f*' when he says, " I have no pleasure in the 
 death of the wicked, but that he turn from his way and live ;" 
 when he declares that he ** will have all men to be saved ;*' 
 when he says, *' I call heaven and earth to record this day 
 against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing 
 and cursing : therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed 
 may live;" when the Saviour invites, « come unto me all ye 
 that are heavy laden and weary and I will give you rest ;" 
 when he asserts that he came to call sinners to repentance, to 
 save that which was lost, to give light to the world ; when he 
 declares that all that will come may come ; when he weeps 
 over Jerusalem ; when he says, ** the harvest is great ;" " seek 
 and ye shall find ;" " ask and ye shall receive j" ** knock and it 
 shall be opened ;" when he speaks of the joy in heaven over 
 a sinner that rc})enteth : when he sets forth the goodness, long 
 suffering, and irtilnite mercy of the Father, by the parable of 
 the prodigal son : when he prays for his enemies, and asserts 
 his Father's unbounded love to all mankind ;-»alI this but 
 serves to prove, if it be true that God had beforehand deter- 
 mined the exact number that should be saved, and which num- 
 ber ca/mef he increased nor diminished ,• and irrevocably decreed 
 the damnation of all the restj all this I say does but evince a 
 horrible system of double dealing, falsehood, and hypocrisy 
 »n the part of the Deity ; and that the Father and Son had 
 entered into collusion, to mock, to deceive, and finally to de- 
 stroy a large majority of the human family ! ! ! 
 
 4th. It makes the preaching of the gospel a perfect mockery. 
 
 If the future state and condition of every soul has, as you 
 affirm, been from all eternity irrevocably determined, what 
 advantage can possibly be derived to any from preaching the 
 
63 
 
 Gospel ? Will you presume to thwart the decrees of God ? Can 
 you save, by a whole life devoted to continual preaching, ex- 
 hortation, and prayer, a single reprobate from eternal death ? 
 Certainly not : both the end and the means to accomplish the 
 eternal destruction of the reprobate have been, you say, decreed 
 before the world was ; your efforts, therefore, can avail notljing : 
 and if you be really sincere in what you are doing, there re- 
 sults, unavoidably, a glaring inconsistency between your pro- 
 fession and your practice. Were your ministers to act ho- 
 nestly up to their profession, could they, with a clear con- 
 science, accept money for preaching ? Ought they not to feel 
 some scruples at receiving from one to six thousand dollars per 
 annum, without being able to prompt even one virtuous thouglit ? 
 If it be answered, <* they are the means of calling the elect,^^ I 
 reply in the words of your Confession, that God did, from all 
 eternity decree «* all the means thereunto :" it is evident there- 
 fore that the elect will infallibly be called without the aitl of 
 your ministers. Besides, as we are told in ch. v. 3, that 
 God sometimes works against means, is there not, therefore, 
 some reason to fear that He may be under'the necessity of 
 working against their preaching, in order to secure the full 
 execution of his decree of reprobation ? But, although this plea 
 be admitted, what can be said to palliate the manifest injustice 
 of taking money from the reprobate; for it is well known, that 
 your ministers not only accept, but importunately beg it from 
 all classes of society ? Is it not enough to doom the reprobate, 
 by an irrespective decree, to eternal misery, without extorting 
 from him the means of procuring to himself, during this short 
 life, some crums of earthly felicity ? But this injustice is more- 
 over greatly aggravated, under the consideration, that preach- 
 ing to the reprobate must not only be necessarily useless as a 
 means of reforming him, but a gin and a snare, according to 
 your creed, to harden him, and to add to his condemnation 
 and punishment ! ! 
 
 Were a stranger from another planet to visit our world with 
 the inquiry : *' What shall I do to be saved ?" and were he in- 
 formed that God, the object of his faith, had from all eternity 
 decreed unalterably all things which come to pass, with all the 
 means necessary thereto; that the number of the saved is so 
 immutably fixed, that it cannot be by any acts of men " in- 
 creased nor diminished,'' nor the period of their *< effectual 
 calling" hastened nor retarded ; that the non-elect are hurried 
 along by the same irresistable impulse ; their numbers, their 
 crimes, and their punishments, unchangeably, and from all 
 eternity, preordained ^—what would be his reply ? <' God has 
 
6^^ 
 
 l«ft nothing for me to do. If I am of the number of the elect I 
 must be saved ; and if of the non-elect, I am lost without a 
 remedy !" " Your whole system of preachini?, praying and 
 exhorting is nothing but an illusion, a mere scheme to obtain 
 money, seeing you cannot change the order of things, nor add 
 one soul to the number of the saved !" 
 
 5th. It reduces the Gospel plan of salvation to a poor, insig- 
 nificant, paltry concern; and the coming of Christ an evidence 
 of God's wrath, rather than of his love. 
 
 According to this doctrine the coming of Christ hath been 
 ordained for the saving of a few only ; and for the hardening 
 and condemnation of the remainder, which constitutes by far 
 the greater part. For, in the words of your Confession, ch. x. 
 i. those " not elected, although they may be called by the 
 ministry of the word, and may have some common operations of 
 the spiritf yet they never truly come to Christ, and therefore 
 cannot be saved." Thus it appears that Christ hath conferred 
 on the reprobate ones "some common operations of the spirit," 
 not in order to save them, but to serve as a pretext for their 
 final condemnation ! ! 
 
 Permit me to call your attention to the smallness of the num- 
 ber of the elect, and the vast multitudes which your doctrine 
 consigns to eternal death. 
 
 In the first chapter of your Confession of Faith, we are 
 taught, that to all those who have not the scriptures, salvation 
 is impossible,^ Now this globe is supposed to contain about 
 nine hundred millions of souls ; and of this number six hun- 
 dred and seventy millions, either have not the scriptures or 
 reject them. It is computed that a generation lasts about 
 
 * — ** It hath pleased the Lord, at sundry times and in diverse manners, to 
 reveal himself, and to declare that his wUl unto his Church, and afterwards to 
 commit the same wholly unto ■u)riti7ig ; which maketh the Holy Scriptures to 
 be most necessary, those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his peo- 
 ple being no-w ceased" — Confession, Ch. i. 1. •* Others not elected, &c. can- 
 not be saved : much less can men, not possessing the Christian religion, be 
 saved in any other way whatsoever ; and to assert and maintain that they may is 
 •very pernicious and to be detested.^' Ch. x. 4. 
 
 I shaU notice the dark sayings of these theologians in another place ; for the 
 present I will place in opposition to them the sentiments of the enlightened 
 Isaac Watts : 
 
 " Upon the whole view of things," says he, " I think, from scripture and 
 reason together, we may justly conclude, that where Christ and the Gospel 
 ere not published, all humble and sincere penitents, asking pardon of God, and 
 hoping in his mercy (though they know nothing of the particular way or me- 
 thod wherein it is, or hath been, or shall be revealed) shall not fail of pardon 
 and acceptance with God at last, nor miss of some tokens of his favour. This 
 grace hath Jesus procured, and God \^yj bcstow it.'* Strength, and Weakness 
 of Human Reason, p. 2d. 
 
thirty five years. Here then we have six hundred and seventy 
 millions of souls swept off every thirty five years into eternal 
 misery ! Nearly three-fourths of the human family to whom, 
 according to your system, salvation through Christ has never 
 been rendered possible ; and tliat too not for any sin which they 
 have committed, but by the decrees of God, and '« without any 
 foresight of antj thing in the creature as conditions or causes 
 moving him thereunto.*^ 
 
 But there is yet to be added to this list the great numbers 
 through Christendom, who, by reason of these decrees "can 
 never come to Christ," and also the souls which the Quakers, 
 the Baptists and the Methodistsby their "illiterate ministers" 
 <* are sending to perdition." To what a very small number, then, 
 will these several subtractions reduce the elect ! According to 
 your premises, I believe tliat for every one elected, there must 
 be from twenty to thirty, wlio have been doomed from all eter- 
 nity, without any regard to their demerits, to receive the awful 
 sentence of « begone ye cursed." ! ! What a comment this, on 
 the divine attributes of that Being, whose *« mercy'* inspiration 
 has pronounced infinite, and *» over all his works." ! What an 
 imputation on that Redeemer who the Scriptures testify " died 
 for all, that all might be saved." ! ! Does such a God as yours 
 deserve the title of « Preserver of men" ? Does such a Christ 
 merit the appellation of " Saviour of the World" ? Could a 
 system be invented more supremely fitted to inspire and diffuse 
 the sentiments of atheism and infidelity ? 
 
 6th. In defence of this system, it has been argued that God's 
 decrees were made in full view of sins voluntarily committed, 
 and thus the reprobate, sinning willingly, is justltj punished. 
 A descending to such sophistry, furnishes an additional evi- 
 dence of error. By this argument the decrees are virtually 
 abandoned; the tenor of it is simply this : God leaves the re- 
 probate to act agreeably to his own volitions, and then passes 
 on his voluntary sins, his decree of coufrmation. Now nothing 
 takes place here, but what would have occurred had no decree 
 been made ; and the amount of the argument is, that God has 
 decreed what should be, merely because he saw that it would 
 be I ! Moreover, the decrees of election and reprobation, arc 
 declared in the Confession of Faith, to have been made by 
 God, ** without any foresight of any thing in the creature, as 
 conditions, or causes moving him thereunto." Hence it is mani- 
 fest, that the God of Calvinism adapts the volitions (or rather 
 actions) of men to his decrees, and not his decrees to their voli- 
 tions,- like a skilful musician who adjusts the strings of his 
 instrument to the air or tunc which he designs to play j or the 
 
6G 
 
 ingenious mechanic, who in constructing a machine to answer 
 a pre-determined purpose, calculates the diameter of the 
 wheels, the number of teeth in each, together with the relation 
 that they must bear to each other, and their manner of connec- 
 tion, so that the complicated motion of the whole shall produce 
 the precise effect intended. Now, in acting under the com- 
 pelling force of the decrees, the elect and the reprobate, pur- 
 sue the narrow and the broad way, with the same kind of wil- 
 lingness, that the instrument produces its tune and the machine 
 its motion. It is in the same sense that the gun in the hands of 
 the murderer kills the victim willingly : the sword in the hand 
 of the assassin enters the body willingly : the weight of the 
 child's body, when thrown over a precipice carries it down 
 willingly : the poison, secretly administered by the treacherous 
 servant, acts willingly on the stomach. Now, agreeably to 
 your mode of reasoning, the gun, the sword, the power of gra- 
 vity, and the poison, are to be reputed the real authors of 
 these murders, and not those persons who directed and applied 
 them ! ! 
 
 7th. I have before said that this doctrine is contrary to the 
 Scriptures. In almost every page of the Bible a refutation 
 of it is to be found. When treating of rewards and punish- 
 ments, the conditions by which the former are gained, and the 
 latter incurred, are so amply set forth, that it is difficult to 
 conceive how any one, entering on the inquiry free from all 
 preconceived opinions, should not be fully convinced of the 
 incompatibility of your doctrine, with the general scope and 
 tenor of those writings. But, Cas in the case before us) the 
 most extravagant and irrational opinions have had Scripture 
 adduced to maintain them. There are some tilings in the 
 sacred page which are, as the apostle Peter declares, <' hard 
 to be understood," and which men, who, like your divines, 
 <*lean to their own understandings," *« unlearned" and un- 
 taught by the Holy Spirit whiclt dictated them, are liable to 
 " wrest to their own destruction." 
 
 I will now turn to some of those texts of Scripture which 
 your theologians bring forward in support o^ unconditional elec- 
 tion and reprobation. «' I pray for them : I pray not for the 
 world, but for them which thou has given me." John xvii 9. 
 
 " All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him 
 that Cometh to me I will in no wise cast out: and this is the 
 Father's will, who sent me, that of all which he hath given 
 me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last 
 day." John vi. 37, 59.* 
 
 * Vid. Letters of Dr. Woods. — There are many texts advanced in support of 
 this doctrine, as Mat. xxiv. 22, Acts xiii. 48, Rom. viii. 30, Eph. i. 4 & 5, 
 
67 
 
 In chap. i. 9, of your Confession of Faith, is found the fol- 
 lowing : <' The intallibie rule of the interpretation of Scripture 
 is the Scripture itself; and, therefore, when there is a question 
 about the true and full sense of any Scripture, (which is not 
 manifold, but one) it may be searched and known by othef 
 places that speak more dearly.'' 
 
 Now, if your Westminster divines had not been the first to 
 violate their own rule, they would never have troubled the 
 world with the doctrine in question; for it is no where ex- 
 pressed in Scripture, that God did from all eternity fore-ordain^ 
 imconditioiially, a certain, fixed, and determinate number of 
 his rational creatures to eternal life, and the rest, in like man- 
 ner, to eternal death ; but the very reverse of all this, is clearhj 
 expressed in a thousand places. 
 
 But let us apply this rule to the case in question. The texts 
 which are quoted, do not explicitly declare an unconditional 
 election ; let us therefore examine, whetlicr there are not, in 
 the words of your rule, '< other places (from the same authority) 
 which speak more clearly.** 
 
 ** Neither pray 1 for these alone ; but for them also, which 
 shall believe on me through their word." John xvii. 20. 
 
 *« For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved 
 me, and have believed that I came out from God," John xvi. 27. 
 
 *' Ye cannot bear fruit except ye abide in me. If a man abide 
 not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered." John 
 XV 4, 6. 
 
 *' If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." 
 Ver. 10. 
 
 *' Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.** 
 Ver. 14. 
 
 «* He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do 
 also." John xiv. 12. 
 
 *« That whosoever believeth in him should not perish." John 
 iii. iB. 
 
 " And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the 
 world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their 
 deeds were evil.'* John iii. i9. 
 
 " Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." John 
 v. 39. 
 
 " If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doc- 
 trine," &c. John vii. 17. 
 
 2 Tim i. 9. &c. &c. None of these Scriptures, however, assert an unconditianal 
 election : one single text, therefore, which plainly declares that election is 
 conditional, outwei^s them all. 
 
C8 
 
 ** ^f y^ forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father 
 will also forgive you." Mat. vi. l i. 
 
 *< Repent ye, and believe the gospel.*' Mark i. 15. 
 
 ** Except ye repent^ ye shall all likewise jjerish." Luke 
 xiii. 3. 
 
 " If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." 
 John viii. 24. 
 
 ** If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." John 
 viii. 51. 
 
 ** Blessed are they that hear the word and keep it." Luke 
 xi. 28. 
 
 *< Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy chil- 
 dren, hut ye would not."' Mat. xxiii. 37. 
 
 " Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and 
 doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man." Mat. vii. 24. 
 
 « I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, 
 therefore choose life.''' Deut. xxx. 19. 
 
 <*If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou 
 doest not well sin lyeth at the door." Gen. iv. 7. 
 
 Now apply the rule. Can words be put together « whicli 
 speak more clearly" a power to obey, or refuse ; to accept, or 
 reject ; a conditional election ; the power of choice ? Every 
 impartial reader will answer, no. It is impossible, therefore, 
 that the texts quoted by you, could have been intended to con- 
 vey the idea of an unconditional election, without making our 
 Saviour inconsistent with himself. 
 
 The above passages are abundantly sufficient to overturn every 
 constructive testimony that ever has, or ever can be adduced 
 in support of your principles. I shall, however, advert to one 
 other part of the New Testament, on which much stress and 
 reliance is placed. I allude to the eighth and ninth chapters 
 of the epistle of Paul to the Romans. It would be no difficult 
 matter to shew from the context of these chapters, that the 
 election which the apostle means, has reference only to out- 
 ward privileges, and no relation to an individual, unconditional 
 election to eternal life. But for the sake of brevity, I will ap- 
 ply «* the infallible rule," as in the foregoing case, and bring 
 forward this eminent apostle's own testimony to redeem his 
 well earned fame ; his liberal, enlightened, and expanded 
 mind, from the dark shade which the advocates of Calvinism 
 have endeavoured to throw around it. In the same epistle, to 
 the same people, and in the chapters immediately succeeding 
 the above, we find the following : 
 
 ''For there is no difference between the Jew and theGreekj 
 
69 
 
 for the same Lord over all, is rich unto all that call upon him.— 
 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be 
 saved/ Rom. x. 12, 13. 
 
 " And if some of the branches be broken off, and thiiu being 
 a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and witli tiK in 
 partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree ; boast not 
 against the branches" — »• because of unbelief they were broken 
 off, and thoustandest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear; 
 for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he 
 spare not thee. Behold therefore, the goodness and severity of 
 God : on them which/e// severity ; but towards tht-e, goodness, if' 
 thou continue in his goodness ; otherwise thou a/so shalt be cut off. 
 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief shall be graffed 
 in ; for God is able to graff them in again.'* Rom. xi. 1 7 to 23. 
 
 " Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth 
 evil" — « but glory, honour and peace to every man that tvorketh 
 good." " For there is no respect of persons with God." " For as 
 many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law." 
 " For not the hearers, but the doers of the law shall be justified." 
 Rom. ch. ii. 
 
 « The man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom /or all." 
 1 Tim. ii. 5 and 6. 
 
 « The grace of God which bringeth salvation, hath appeared 
 unto all men." Titus ii. 11. 
 
 " That he, by the grace of God tasted death for every manJ" 
 Heb. ii 9. 
 
 Now if this dignified servant of Christ had purposely taken 
 up the pen to overthrow the doctrine of unconditional election 
 and reprobation, he could not have spoken <* more clearly ;" 
 and had your theologians turned to these passages, and applied 
 their own "infallible rule" to them, I think they never could 
 have brought him forward as an advocate for their doctrine. 
 
 I will close this article with a few more Scriptures, proving 
 general redemption, or that salvation is put within the reach of 
 every man. 
 
 « If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, even 
 Jesus Christ the righteous, who is a propitiation for our sins, 
 and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 
 ii. 1 and 2. 
 
 « God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.'' 2 
 Cor. V. 19. 
 
 " For the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world,*^ 
 John i. 29. 
 
 « For as, by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men 
 
70 
 
 16 condemnation : even so by the righteousness of one the J'rce 
 gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. v. 18. 
 
 ** The true light, which lighteth every man that cometh 
 
 into the world." John i. 9. 
 
 ** For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
 but that the world through him might be saved." John iii. 17. 
 
 « But we thus judge, that if one died for all then were all 
 dead." 2 Cor. v. 14.. 
 
 "Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due 
 time." 1 Tim. ii. 6. 
 
 « The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over 
 all his works.'' Psal. cxlv. 9. 
 
 « Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
 world.'' John i. 29. 
 
 " I exhort that prayers, &c. be made for all men; for this is 
 good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ; who will 
 have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of 
 the truth." 1 Tim. ii. 1, 3, 4. 
 
 <• He is not willing that any should perish, but that all 
 
 should come to repentance." 
 
 « For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." John iii. 16. 
 
 Now it would be absurd to deny that the above Scriptures 
 plainly offer salvation, conditionally, to all men; and if it were 
 granted, that the texts which your divines quote be equally 
 conclusive in establishing the contrary doctrine of unconditional 
 election and reprobation, the monstrous consequence would 
 follow, that as both of these doctrines, so opposite and irrecon- 
 cilable to each other, have been announced by the same a%ithors, 
 these, being so inconsistent with themselves, ought to be treated 
 as impostors and deemed unworthy of our respect and credence. 
 
 8th. A legitimate offspring of predestination, is the doctrine 
 of the I'ERSEVERANCE of the saints, or once in grace always 
 
 IN GRACE. 
 
 All the arguments which have been advanced against pre- 
 destination, apply with equal force against this doctrine : they 
 are inseparably connected, and must stand or fall together. 
 Hence it is declared in the Confession of Faith, chap. xvii. 2. 
 that this article of your creed <* depends on the immutability 
 of the decree of election." 
 
 The holy Apostle admonishes us to ** give all diligence to 
 make our calling and election sure ;" which advice clearly im- 
 plies that our perseverance, or continuance in a state of grace 
 or favour with God, depends on our co-operating, care, and dili- 
 
71 
 
 gencc. And this same apostle was fully convinced of the neces- 
 sitv of this diligence in iiis own case, when he says: " But I 
 keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by 
 an^ means, when 1 have preached to others, I myself should 
 be a cast-away." — i Cor. ix. 27. And he also testifies of some 
 wlio, although once in grace, had fallen : "Holding faith," says 
 he, *♦ and a good conscience, which some having -put away, 
 concerning faith have made shipxvreck.** — 1 Tim. i. 19. Thus 
 also in Ezekiel xviii. 24, 27 : *' When a righteous man turneth 
 away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, shall 
 he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be 
 mentioned ; in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his 
 sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. Again, when the 
 wicked turneth away from his wickedness, that he hath com- 
 mitted, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall savK 
 his soul alive.'* 
 
 Now, agreeably to the " infallible rule" in the Confession, 
 this text speaks so «' clearly," that no one can mistake it. The 
 prophet here overturns the whole system of predestination with 
 all its appendages. Here is a righteous man falling from grace 
 and dying thereby ; and a reprobate, turning from his wicked- 
 ness and « saving his soul alive." But were I to quote all the 
 Scripture testimony which plainly denies this irrational and 
 pernicious doctrine, I should swell this article to a volume. 
 The Bible is full of it. Suffice it to add the following texts : 
 
 " Repent and do thy jirst works, or else I will come unto 
 thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place 
 except thou repent.''' Rev. ii. 5. 
 
 ♦♦ To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of 
 life." Rev. ii. 7. 
 
 ** Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
 life." Rev. ii. 10. 
 
 ** Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will 
 keep thee from the hour of temptation." Rev. iii. 10. 
 
 " But he that endureth to the end shall be saved." Mat. 
 
 X. 22. 
 
 In considering the decisive import of the foregoing texts, 
 with a thousand more that miglit be quoted, how are we to 
 reconcile the manifest discrepancy between your declaration 
 that the Bible is the »< only adequate and primary rule of faitit 
 and practice," and the following articles of your creed ? 
 
 *♦ God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are jus- 
 tified." Conf. of Faith, xi. 5. 
 
 *< The elect are pitied, protected, provided for, and chas- 
 tened, by him as by a father, yet never cast off bnt scaled to the 
 day of redemption." Chap. xii. 1. 
 
7^ 
 
 The very dangerous tendency of this doctrine is well illus- 
 trated in the case of Oliver Cromwell ; who, when conscious 
 of his approaching dissolution, asked his favorite chaplain if it 
 was certain that the elect could never suffer a final reproba- 
 tion. *< On that you may with confidence rely," said the min- 
 ister. " Then am I safe," replied Cromwell, •* for I am sure 
 that I was once in a state of grace." (Modern Europe, vol. iii. 
 p. 440.) Thus died the famous Protector, after many years 
 spent in dissipation and forgetfulness of God, leaning on this 
 article of his creed, delusive as the hypocrite's hope, which 
 perisheth, instead of " seeking a place of repentance," and 
 doing " his first works." 
 
 It is thus that He, whom inspiration declares to be <« no re- 
 specter of persons," and to be *< equal in all his ways," is 
 represented by your faith, as dooming millions of souls to end- 
 less perdition, for the sin of one whom they never heard of, and 
 upholding and justifying his favoured few in all their wicked- 
 ness, and finally receiving them into the arms of his love, with- 
 out one virtuous thought to recommend them to his favour ; 
 and this in order «* to manifest his glory, to make his power 
 known, and to the praise of his glorious justice.*^ 1 1 ! 
 
 *' As for my people, children are their oppressors and women 
 rule over them. my people, they which lead thee cause thee 
 to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." 
 
 9th. The last article of your Belief which I shall notice, but 
 one not less dangerous and anti-scriptural than that of perse- 
 verance, is imputative righteousness, which is laid down in the 
 Confession of Faith, and by the pretended orthodoXf as follows : 
 
 «< Those whom God effectually calleth he also freely justi- 
 fieth, not by infusing righteousness into them; not for any 
 thing wrought in them, or done by them, but by imputing the 
 obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them. God did from 
 all eternity, agree to justify all the elect. God doth continue 
 to forgive the sins of those that are justified. Repentance is 
 no cause of the pardon of sin. To all those for whom Christ 
 has purchased redemption, he doth certainly and effectually ap- 
 ply and communicate the same. The Lord Jesus by his perfect 
 obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he, through the Eter- 
 nal Spirit, once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the 
 justice of his Father, and purchased not only reconciliation, hut an 
 everlasting iyiheritance in the kingdom of Heaven, for all those 
 ^vhom the Father hath given him.*' — Cb. viii. 6, 8. Ch. xi. 1,*, 5. 
 Ch. XV. 3. 
 
 « The Covenant of Grace, with respect to us, hath no condi- 
 tions. A right to life neither is nor can be founded on any 
 
73 
 
 action of ours, but on the righteousness of our Lord alone, who 
 having perfectly fulfilled the righteousness of the law for us, 
 nothing can injustice be required of us to perform, in order to 
 acquire a right already purchased for us : and indeed in this 
 all the orthodox readily agree. It is not possible the Covenant 
 of Grace should be made void, by any unbelief oi the elect, nor 
 acquire its stability by any faith in man." Herman Witsius, 
 
 " The conditions being fulfilled by the Angel of the Cove- 
 nant, the Catholic Church v^^as, through and for him, consti- 
 tuted heir of eternal life, withoiU any conditions.''* Junius. 
 
 <' God has told us that we must rely on the atoning blood of 
 his Son as the sole ground of forgiveness.** Woods* Letters. 
 
 The foregoing quotations afford a clear view of imputative 
 righteousness; it brings us to the summit of the Presbyterian 
 scheme ; gives the finishing stroke to the idol of Calvinism ', 
 it forms the cap-stone of the Colossus. Without it the system 
 would have been incomplete. The Covenant of Grace, with 
 respect to us, has no conditions. We are, by an eternal decree, 
 justified, i. e. acquitted, or discharged, from guilt, without any 
 thing being wrought in us, or done by us : repentance is no 
 cause of pardon ; nothing is required of ms to perform. Unbelief 
 cannot possibly make void the Covenant of Grace, nor acquire 
 its stability by any faith in man. In short, the merits of 
 Christ's death alone hath fdly purchased our redemption, made 
 full satisfaction for all our sins, past, present, and to come, 
 and thus constituted us heirs of eternal life, without any con- 
 ditions ! .' ! 
 
 To the texts of Scripture already advanced in opposition to 
 these opinions, I will add the following : 
 
 "He that justifeth the wicked, and he that condemneth the 
 just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord." Prov, 
 xvii. 15. 
 
 *» Let the wicked/orsafee his ways, and the unrighteous man 
 his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will 
 have mercy, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." 
 Isa. Iv. 7. 
 
 *• The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken and 
 contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Psalm li. 16, 17. 
 
 " In every nation, he thAt feareth God, and worketh righteous- 
 ness, is accepted of liim." Acts x. *, 35. 
 
 " Repent, repent : bring forth /ntifs meet for repentance." 
 Mat iii. 28. 
 
 '• Uyf forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father 
 will also forgive you." Mat. vi. 14. 
 
 K 
 
7-* 
 
 »< I \mve fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, hence- 
 forth," &c. 2 Tim. iv. 7. 
 
 Thus in the above passages, and those before quoted, it is 
 explicitly declared, that the ground of man's reconciliation 
 through Jesus Christ, with his Creator, rests on his " forsa- 
 king his wicked ways" — <* a broken and contrite heart" — 
 <* repentance" — " forgiving men their trespasses" — " abiding 
 in Christ" — *< keeping his commandments" — " loving and 
 coming to the light" — »< believing the gospel" — " hearing the 
 word and keeping it" — « dealing justly, loving mercy, and 
 Avalking humbly" — «< overcoming his evil propensities" — and 
 Lis final salvation and acceptance, on his '< continuance in well 
 doing to the end" of life. And the means by which he is to 
 accomplish this great purpose of his creation, is declared to be 
 ** the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, and which ap- 
 peareth unto all meiif teaching them, that, denying ungodliness 
 and the world's lusts, they should live soberly, righteously and 
 godly in this present world." Such is the plain, simple, reason- 
 able, yet sublime religion of Jesus Christ, as found in the New 
 Testament | equally adapted to the highest and lowest capa- 
 cities, and within the reach of every condition of life j no one 
 of the human family is, necessarily, excluded from partaking 
 of its benefits : ♦* For the sons of the stranger, saith the Lord, 
 even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them 
 joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their 
 sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar ; for my bouse 
 shall be called an house of prayer/or all people .-" and «♦ in every 
 nation he that feareth me, and worketh righteousness, is ac- 
 cepted." Isaiah Ivi. 7. Acts x. 35. 
 
 Now between this system and the one I have been review- 
 ing, there is, I believe, fewer points of resemblance, than exists 
 between it, and that of Confucius, of Brahma, or of the impos- 
 tor of Mecca. 
 
 I am fully aw-are that some of your moderns deny the eon- 
 sequences which are so clearly inferable from the Westmin- 
 ster Confession j but they have failed to show how any other 
 can be drawn from the premises, and their argument consists 
 in wrapping the whole up in mystery I Some have gone so far 
 as to endanger their claim to orthodoxy^ by doubting the infal- 
 libility of the Westminster divines : Yet, one of them, (Woods) 
 in his " Letters to the Unitarians," sets his seal to predesti- 
 nation in the following expressions : 
 
 <* I could, as, I think, make it appear, that the doctrine of 
 God*s sovereign election is the only doctrine which accounts 
 
75 
 
 satisfactorily/or the actual difference which exists between true 
 believers and the rest of the world.^^ 
 
 <* We believe that those, who are chosen of God to salvation, 
 are not chosen because they were, in themselves, more worthy 
 of this blessing than others, tliat God looked upon their moral 
 feelings and conduct with the same disapprobatiojif and had the 
 same view of their ill desert, and that he chose them, as we 
 may say, for reasons of state ; for general reasons in his go- 
 vernment, which he has not revealed.'*^ <♦ God has a purpose, 
 choice^ will and good pleasure^ respecting those who are saved ; 
 a purpose or choice wliich was in the mind of God htfore they ex- 
 isted : a purpose which does not rest upon any personal merit 
 in those, who are its objects ; of grace, excluding all works of 
 righteousness from having any concern in this subject,^^ 
 
 ** tN'othing is effected by the efforts of man, but every thing de- 
 pends on the mercy of God." 
 
 Here the doctrine of an irrespective decree is as clearly set 
 forth as it is in the Westminster Confession. The conduct 
 and efforts of man have nothing to do with his salvation : 
 works have no " concern in itf* he is chosen, **for rea- 
 sons of state^'' and " God's sovereign election makes all the dif- 
 ference between true believers, and the rest of the world'* ! / 
 
 Now, if nothing be effected " by the efforts of man," what 
 mean these scriptures : <* and every man shall receive his own 
 reward according to his own labour." « For we are labourers 
 together with God." — 1 Cor. iii. 8, 9. " We then as workers 
 together with Ikim." — 2 Cor. vi. 1. "Give diligence to make 
 your calling and election sure."— 2 Pet- i. 10. *' Let ns 
 cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." — 2 
 Cor. vii. 1. ? 
 
 One of the main arguments, it seems, is, with « Dr. Woods," 
 in support of predestination, that God has established it *'for 
 reasons of state.'* This mode of reasoning may be illustrated 
 as follows : The king of France destroys at one blow, twenty- 
 five millions of his subjects, and the remaining five millions/ 
 he loads with all the wealth of his kingdom. Did these poor 
 souls whom he has cut off, rebel against his government, or 
 commit any other offence whatever against him ? He answers, 
 « none at all !" The survivers, then, who are bending under 
 his accumulated favours, must have performed some important 
 services ? He replies, " not the least in the world" — *« I have 
 done this "for reasons of state ! /" This reply ought to be to 
 our learned divine, a convincing proof of the goodness and mercy 
 of this god-like king, who has thus made « his power knmrn., to 
 the praise of his glorious justice" ! ! 
 
76 
 
 It is thus that the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, \vheii 
 viewed tluoui^h the dark mists of ancient ov modern Calvinism, 
 is transformed into a hideous monster. The system may be 
 compared to a false mirror, which so distorts the features of 
 objects, that the images which it reflected, bear no resemblance 
 whatever to their originals ; and I think those who refuse to 
 unite with you in sending the gospel to the heathen in such a 
 dress, are very justly entitled to their scruples. The following 
 quotation from a speech made by Charles Marsh, Esq. in the 
 House of Commons, on a missionary question then before that 
 body, is, 1 think worthy of the attention of every friend to pure 
 Christianity. 
 
 After speaking of the moral character of the Hindoos, and 
 vindicating the m from unjust aspersion, the member continued 
 as follows : " If Christianity is sent out to them, attributing to 
 the beneficent Author of Nature, the same morose, capricious, 
 revengeful passions which agitate the human tyrant, but with 
 infi>>Jty to his power, and '-nfiless duration to his inflictions; if 
 it was the primary tenet of that doctrine, that the same being 
 had mad^ a fanciful and arbitrary destination of a large por- 
 tion of his creatures, without blame or delinquency, nay, bpfore 
 their birth, to everlasting misi/vv ; and to have as fancifully 
 and capriciously destined the rest to an eternal happiness, un- 
 earned by one real merit, or one virtuous aspiration : and if, 
 in this gloomy creed, an assent to mystical propositions was 
 the chief claim to salvation, while it pronounced the purest and 
 most exalted morals to be equivalent to the most abandoned 
 wickedness: reason and common sense might be allowed to 
 throw out a few scruples against the subversion of the esta- 
 blished morals or theology of India, however absurd or super- 
 stitious, if stick was the system by which they were to be 
 superceded." 
 
 Before I leave your Confession of Faith, permit me to call 
 your attention to a few of the many contradictions which it 
 contains. 
 
 1. No sooner do we cast our eyes on the Calvinistic Babel, 
 than we perceive its unsightly structure. It begins thus : "Al- 
 though the light of nature, and the works of creation and pro- 
 vidence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power 
 of God, as to leave men inexctisable ; yet they are not snj^cient 
 to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary 
 unto salvation.^^ Now for what is man held *' inexcusable," 
 or criminal ? For not doing the law or will of God ; there is no- 
 thingclsie.asit r^^ta'eel; n.> an's moral o? i elie'iri>s duties. of v It ch 
 criminality can be predicated. Here, then, God is represented 
 
77 
 
 as criminating man for not doing his will, whilst the means 
 furnisiied arc declared «* not sufficient to give that knowledge 
 of God, and of his ivill, which is necessary unto salvation^' ! I 
 
 2. In chap. V. 6., we are told that God " withholdeth his grace 
 from the reprobate, or wicked" : and in ch. x. 2. it is held out, 
 that he forceth it upon the elect, or renders them passive* reci- 
 pients. Yet in ch. vii. 3, it is said, that Goii freely offereth unto 
 sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ. Now as all man- 
 kind are included in these two classes, to whom does he make 
 this free offering of grace and salvation ? 
 
 S. In ch. ix. 1, it is said, ** God hath endued the will of 
 man with that natural liberty, tliat it is neither forced, nor by 
 any absolute necessity of nature, determined to do good or evil." 
 Thus, as it respects his propensities to good or evil, man is 
 by nature, perfectly neutral : yet in ch. vi. 4, it is declared 
 that we are " utterly disabled (by nature) and made opposite to 
 all good, and wholly inclined to all evil" ! ! 
 
 4. In chapter ix. 2, it is stated, that man in his state of 
 innocency h^i\ freedom and power to will and to do that which is 
 good and well pleasing to God, but yet mutably so, that he might 
 fall from it. Here, then, man is made free, either to stand or 
 fall ; but how shall this be reconciled with God's eternal decree, 
 fore-ordaining immutably and unchangeably whatsoever comes 
 to pass ? 
 
 5. In xvi. 7, we are told that works done by unregenerate 
 men, although things which God commands, and of good use 
 both to themselves and others, yet are sinful; and not to do them 
 still more sinful. Is it then sinful to do ♦« things which God 
 commands'' i but if sinful, how "of good use to the sinner''? 
 Again, if a sinful act, how can the abstaining from it be *' still 
 more sinful" ? 
 
 6. in XV. 3, we read that repentance cannot be considered 
 as a cause of pardon, yet of such necessity to all sinners that 
 none may expect pardon without it / If then repentance is to be 
 made a condition of salvation, what becomes of unconditional 
 election ? 
 
 7. The above makes repentance a sine qua non of pardon ; 
 but by xi. 1, we are to understand that neither pardon, nor 
 justification, is to be experienced by any thing wrought in «s. 
 Now if the work of repentance is not wrought in us, where is 
 it wrought ? 
 
 8. In ch. vi. 1, it is said that « the sin of our first parents. 
 God was pleased, according to his holy counsel, to permit.^' 
 
 * This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from any 
 thing at all foreseen in man, -who is altosethffr passive tfcemn." Chap. x. 7. 
 
78 
 
 Now, his "holy counsel," as declared to Adam, was an unqualified 
 prohibition — •» Thou shall not eat" Th«js God is rendered in- 
 consistent with himself; at one period forbidding an act, and 
 subsequently allowing it!! Again; in ch. v. 4, we are told 
 that the almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite 
 goodness of God, extendeth itself even to the Jirst fall, and that 
 not by a bare permission. Here the permissive will, asserted 
 above, is positively denied, and the absolute decree substituted ! 
 
 9. In XX. 2, we read that « God alone is Lord of the con- 
 science" ; yet immediately afterwards, that *' it is a sin to 
 refuse an oath, being imposed by lawful authority." Here, in 
 the first place, God is made " Lord of the conscience," but in 
 the second place, man. 
 
 10. In xxviii. 1, it is declared, that "Baptism is, to the party 
 baptized, a sign, and seal of the covenant of grace ; of his in- 
 grafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and 
 of his giving up unto God to walk in newness of life'' ! This 
 wonderful effect ot sprinkling, seems to render the decree of 
 election wholly superfluous. We are told, however, in the fol- 
 lowing fifth article of the same chapter, that " grace and sal- 
 vation are not so inseparably annexed to it [sprinkling] as that 
 all that are baptized [sprinkled] are undoubtedly regenerated." 
 Thus, in the first clause sprinkling is made a seal of regenera^ 
 tion, &c. and in the second, no seal at all I 
 
 11. In xxviii. 5, we are told that <* it is a great sin to contemn 
 or neglect" the ordinance of baptism; yet that a person can be 
 regenerated and saved without it. How can a person be <« re- 
 generated and saved" whilst in the habitual commission of a 
 great sin ? 
 
 12. In XXX. 1, it is affirmed that to the officers of the church, 
 *< the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed ; by virtue 
 whereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins ; 
 to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, and to open it 
 unto penitent sinners" ! ! We are left to conjecture whether 
 your Westminster divines got those keys out of the hands of 
 St. Peter, or whether they are only a/oc simile. That they are 
 of Popish origin, there can be little doubt, and deserve a place 
 alongside of the sacrificeof the mass, and the j7crmif for granting 
 indulgences. 
 
 13. In chap. xxv. 2, 3, and B, we read *< that, the visible 
 church, which is also Catholic, is the kingdom of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the house and family of God"-—** that particular 
 churches are members thereof," and that ** the purest churches 
 under Heaven are subject both to mixture and error." By this 
 we are to understand that, as the Catholic church is made up 
 
7ti 
 
 of branches^ or particular churches, and the luircst of these 
 are subject to mixture and error, therefore ;the Catholic 
 church is subject to mixture and error. But this church is 
 here declared to be the kingdom of tlie Lord Jesus Christ — the 
 house and family of God : it follows, tlierefore^ that the king- 
 dom of the Lord Jesus Christ — the house and family of God, is 
 subject both to mixture and error ! ! This, to say the least of 
 it, is strange doctrine. In Tim. iii. 15. it is said that the 
 church of God is the pillar and ground of truth ; and in I Cor. 
 i. 2. that this church is composed of them that arc sa?idi^ed ; 
 and further, we are taught from the same high authority, that 
 nothing impure^ unrighteous, or unholy, can ever enter into the 
 kingdom of the Lord. 
 
 14. In chap. x. 3. it is said that " Elect infants dying in 
 infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ, through the 
 Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth." 
 *< So also are alt other eleet persons, who are incapable of being 
 outwardly called, by the ministry of the word,''' Here then 
 salvation, through Christ, is admitted to some who, by bodily 
 or mental infirmity, cannot have any outward knowledge of 
 Christ, or the Christian religion. Yet in the following article 
 it is affirmed, that « men not possessing the Christian religion,''^ 
 (outwardly) cannot possibly be saved, and to " assert and 
 maintain that they may, \s very pernicious and to be detested.^^ ! 
 Moreover, seeing that millions of the heathens not possessing 
 the Christian religion outwardly, has arisen from causes as 
 much beyond their controiiL as mental and bodily infirmities, 
 how is it that salvation is granted to the latter, yet made im- 
 possible to any of me former, especially as the spirit is declar- 
 ed in the saviwg of souls to work *'when and where, and how 
 he pleaseth*^ ? 
 
 15. By the 3rd chapter we learn that all things are decreed 
 immutably and infallibly, with all the means thereunto ,• but 
 in the vth. 3. we are told that ** God ordereth them to fall oxit, 
 according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, 
 freely, ov contingently^''^ that is to say, by accident 1 1 ! Here 
 then we have God first foreordaining all things, and then order- 
 ing them to fall out by accident 1 1 
 
 16. In chap. i. 9. your divines tell us that " the infallible 
 rule of the interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself:'* 
 yet they previously " acknowledge" in art. vi. of the same 
 chapter, <* the inward illumination of the spirit of God to be 
 necessary for the saving understanding" thereof. Now this is 
 ■omething else besides the '* Scripture itself." 
 
80 
 
 17. In chap. i. 1. it is said « those former ways of God's 
 rev<*armg his will are now ceased." Now one of these <* former 
 ways" is, no doubt, internal revelation, which your divines thus 
 assert to have ceaserf ; yet in art. vi. they admit *« the illumi- 
 nation of the spirit of God :" and again in art. v. they say 
 « Our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and 
 divine authority of the Scriptures is from the inward work of 
 the Holy Spirit, bearing witness, by and with the word in our 
 hearts." Now by what name shall we call this *' inward work 
 of tlie Holy Spirit,'* if it be not an internal revelation? 
 
 18. In chap. xiii. 2. we read that " sanctification is throngk- 
 Qut, in the whole man.'^ By this, I presume, is meant, (if there 
 be any meaning in it) that the «' whole man," or man, in every 
 part, is made holy: yet immediately afterwards it is added, 
 *' there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every parV'l 
 which it is said continues more or less during " this life'' ! 
 Again, in the same chapter, article 1, we are truly told, that 
 ♦< without holiness no man shall see the Lord." But if « some 
 remnant of corruption in every part,'* continueth during this 
 life, who I ask, shall ever see the Lord ? For, " as the tree falls 
 so it lies"? Nothing short of a purgatory, can relieve your 
 divines from this serious dilemma. 
 
 19. The Confession says, that prayer is to be made «< for 
 all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter." Ch. xxi. 
 4. Now the words " all sorts'^ include the reprobate; do you 
 pray for the salvation of the reprobate f Your divines have 
 given much glory to God for fixing, by an irrespective, irre- 
 vocable decree, his eternal destruction : how vain, then, and 
 inconsistent must be such prayers ! ! 
 
 I here close this brief review of your Confession of Faith — 
 this <' stupendous fabric o{ human invention ;" in the formation 
 of which, reason and Scripture have been sacrificed on the altar 
 of Calvinism. In it we have a monument of the truth of the 
 Scripture declaration: that *« the things of God knoweth no 
 man, but the Spirit of God." An example of what theologians 
 can accomplisii, in piloting the religious traveller to the gates 
 of Zion. An evidence of the extent to which the human under- 
 standing may be obscured, vitiated, and corrupted, when en- 
 listed in the support of particular systems, creeds, or pre- 
 conceived opinions. 
 
 It will be the subject of my next letter to inquire how far 
 those errors in doctrine have operated in producing errors in 
 practice. For doctrine, abstractedly considered, whether true 
 or false, is of importance, no further than it influences our lives 
 and conduct. We shall not be asked, in the day of awful dici- 
 
81 
 
 sion, respecting our opinions, — whether we had espoused the 
 dojiinas ot Calvin, Fox, or Wesley. The glorious welcome of 
 <♦ ct)me ye blessed,*' or the appalling sentence of *' begone ye 
 cursed, ' will not turn on the point of our having used or rejected 
 water baptism, or the Eucharist; ofour having read the Bible, or 
 the Koran, or the Shaslers, or worshipped the Great Spirit after 
 the tradition ofour fathers, in the wilds of America. But we 
 all shall be judged " according to the deeds done in the body, 
 whether they be good, or whether they be evil" — " And the\ 
 books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the \ 
 book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things, which ' 
 were written in the b(»ok, accarding to their works." Rev. xx. 
 12. These are not the works of the flesh, «< which profitcth 
 nothing," nor the righteousness of self^ which is " as filthy 
 rags ;" but the works done through obedience to the operation 
 of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, " a manifestation whereof is 
 given to every man to profit withal." 
 
 Your theologians, «« ever learning, yet never able to come 
 to the knowledge of the truth," have written volumes on the 
 ineflScacy oi works : they have succeeded, truly, in darkening 
 the subject by «' words without knowledge :" they have piaced 
 the most exalted virtues on a level with the most abandoned 
 wickedness : and the sum of religion, it would seem, consists 
 •with them in an assent of the tongue to certain incomprehen- 
 sible propositions, and which they call faith. Now this is the 
 kind of faith which the apostle declares is a dead faith : a faith 
 which is overcome of the world: a faith *' without works." 
 The worfes which are excluded by the apostle from justification, 
 are not the works of the new covenant, the good works pro- 
 duced in the saints by the Holy Spirit, as some have erro- 
 neously imagined, but the <' works of the law" — tho works of 
 the flesh which profit nothing ; according to the declaration of 
 our blessed Lord : « It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh 
 profitcth nothing." John vi 63. And what are the works of the 
 flesh? Water-baptisms ; sprinklings ; eating bread and wine ;* 
 
 * In these remarks, it is far, very far from my intentions to wound the feelings 
 of any, who are travelling towards " the City of the Saints Solemnity," in that 
 path, wherein the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err In tlxe love of 
 the gospel I can address all such, of every profession under heaven, with the 
 salutation of " God speed '* But to such as teach and cherish a vain belief, 
 that these rites are "a seal of the covenant of grace," of an ingraffing into 
 Cihrist, and a remission of sins ; that in the use of the bread and wine there ia 
 an actual partaking, and a spiritual " feeding on Christ crucified, and all bene- 
 fits of liis death," agreeably to the Presbyterian Confession of Faith — to such, 
 1 would address myself in the language of the apostle — " How turn ye again to 
 the beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ?" 1 believe 
 Baptism is used by SQme as merely an outward form of initiation into the visible 
 
 L 
 
82 
 
 approaching God with the tongue and with the lips, when the 
 heart is far from him ; with the whole parade of will-worship and 
 an outward, carnal, religion, and bestowing charities to be seen, 
 or known of men :— such are some of the works of the flesh, and 
 are before God stsjllthy rags. But the work of repentance and 
 regeneration, wrought in the secret of the soul : dealing justly ; 
 loving mercy ; walking humbly ; worshipping God ** in spirit 
 and in truth 5" the righteousness of Christ, in measure, brought 
 forth in man, by submitting himself to the cleansing operation 
 of spiritual baptism, and being thus sprinkled from an evil, and 
 « and having the answer of a good conscience :" these are the 
 works which will ever build up, and nourish a saving faith, 
 that overcometh the world 5 these are the works which we may 
 plead, and not in vain, in the awful day of account. In fine, 
 these are the works, and no other, which are acceptable to God, 
 because produced by the operation of his Holy Spirit in the 
 heart and soul of man ; and it is thus that we are washed ;— ■ 
 not with elementary water : it is thus that faith is fed— not with 
 bread and wine : and it is thus that we are sanctified and justi- 
 fied ; not by an eternal decree ; but <* in the name (which is the 
 power) of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,''^ 
 
 church ; and the Eucharist as a commemoration only of the death of Christ ; 
 and when thus used, the principal objections against these rites vanish. Yet 
 here, it is difficult to perceive their utility. Why should a humble follower of 
 Christ, think it needful to resort to a cumbersome rite, once or twice a month, 
 to bring events to his recollection, which, if he deserve the name of a Christian, 
 must be daily passing through his mind, and for which he is " oftener than 
 the momijjg," breathing forth the tribute of gratitude ami praise i 
 
LETTER IV. 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN PRACTICE. 
 
 OF THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES AND AN EDUCATED HIRELDSTG 
 
 MINISTRY. 
 
 *' And out of the smoke of the pit there cain«> forth locustaon the earth.'* 
 
 Rev. ix. 4. 
 
 MY inquiries in this and the subsequent letter, will relate 
 to practical subjects ; matters of fact, and therefore of the first 
 importance. If there be any weight in the declaration of our 
 Lord, it is by their fruits that we are to know and to judge 
 both of individuals, and of communities. ' 
 
 The extraordinary exertions which your society are making 
 to found schools for the education of men, qualify them, pro- 
 fessedly, to preach the gospel at home and abroad, force upon 
 the mind, your theological system as the first and most promi- 
 nent subject for consideration. I shall Uierefore inquire, briefly, 
 how far your practice herein is consistent with the precepts and 
 examples of Scripture, and the dictates of reason ; and also 
 how far the result of experience gives it sanction. 
 
 It is declared in your Confession of Faith, that the holy 
 Scriptures « are given by inspiration to be the rule of faith and 
 life ;" and all your writers hold them forth as the primary, ade- 
 quate, and onUj rule of faith and practice. Whatever evidence, 
 therefore, these writings afford on this and every other subject 
 relating to faith and practice, ought to be, with you, entirely 
 conclusive. Now, I affirm, without tlie fear of contradiction, 
 that there is not, in all the New Testament, either precept or 
 example that sanctions, directly, or indirectly, any such insti- 
 tutions as theological seminaries, to make ministers of the gos- 
 pel. On the contrary, almost every page thereof bears testi- 
 mony to the vanity, the folly, and the entire insufficiency of 
 human learning, wisdom, and science, when brought to bear 
 upon this subject. 
 
 The conduct of our Saviour, if it is to have any weight, saps 
 the very foundation of your theological system. He chose poor. 
 
81 
 
 illiterate; despised fishermen and mechanics, as the fittest sub- 
 jects to receive and propagate his gosptl. With the learned 
 Scribes and Pharisees, the theologians of that day. He had no 
 place ; on the contrary, they opposed, persecuted, and finally 
 bri^ught him to the cross. «* I thank thee, Lord of heaven and 
 earth," says Christ, *' because thou liast hid tliese things from 
 the \vise and prudenff and revealed them unto babes.''* Who 
 were the wise and prudent? Those who opposed and rejected 
 his gfispel, and among these the Chief Priests and Scribes, 
 Jewish doctors of divinity, stood in the front ranks. Who 
 were the babes? Such as Simon, and Andrew, and James, and 
 John, meek, humble, simple, but honest men, whose thoughts 
 *' proud science never taught to stray ;" whose *» illiterate 
 heads" were not filled with school divinity, nor hearts devoted 
 or interested in the support and defence of any particular creed 
 or system of theology. 
 
 Next to our Saviour's testimony ranks that of the Apostle Paul, 
 who is a host of himself. Now Paul was a theologian, an edu- 
 cated minister, and a persecuter of the true Church. The simple 
 invitation of «' Follow me," was enough for the honest hearted 
 fishermen of Gallilee ; « they straightway left their nets and 
 followed him." But our reverend divine, brought up at the 
 feet of the Professor Gamaliel, nothing short of a miraculous 
 exertion of divine power, would do for him : nothing short of 
 an extraordinary light fivjm heaven could dispel the thick mist 
 of school divinity, with wliich he was enveloped ! ! But now his 
 spiritual eyes are openett, and he exclaims : *< Where is the 
 wise ? Where is the scribe t Where is the disputer of this 
 world ? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? 
 For it written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and 
 bring to naught the understanding of the prudent ; for the 
 foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God 
 is stronger than men" — " For God hath chosen the foolish 
 things of the world, to confound the wise, and the weak things 
 of the world to confound the things that are mighty ; and base 
 things of the world, and things that are despised, hath God 
 chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught 
 things that are ; that no Jiesh might glory in his presence.''* •< Fop 
 Christ," he continues, « sent me to preach the gospel, not with 
 wisdom of wofds, lest the cross of Christ should be made of 
 none effect^** — <* and my speech, and my preaching was wofwfiA 
 enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit 
 and with power ; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom 
 of muju but in i-ie power of God.** 1 Cor. i. i9, 20, '^5, 27, 
 28, 29-- ii. 4, 5, &e. The above quotations sufficiently prove, 
 
85 
 
 that the qualifications necessary to constitute a disciple of our 
 Lord, or a minister of his gospel, are very different from those 
 which human learning, human wisdom, or human theology can 
 possibly confer. We shall now inquire what those qualifications 
 are, and through what medium they are obtained ? 
 
 1. In order to be a minister of Christ, a man must first be a 
 Christian. What can make a Christian ? Can human learning, 
 or the study of theology? No! — The virtue and power of 
 divine grace — the spirit of God alone, can effect the work, and 
 which is proved by the following Scriptures : *' He that hath 
 not the Spirit of Christ is none of his" — « As many as are led 
 hy the Spirit of God, are the sons of God" — " Know ye not 
 that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates r" — " 1 am,, 
 says Christ, the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh 
 unto the Father but by me" — " What man, says the apostle, 
 knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is 
 in him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the 
 Spirit of God." — And further : <* We have, says he, received 
 not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that 
 we might know the things which are freely given us of God"-— . 
 <* For the spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of 
 God" — " And no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by 
 the Holy Ghost." 
 
 2. If therefore no man can say (or know) that Jesus is the 
 Lord but by the Holy Ghost ; and if he that hath not the Spirit 
 of God be none of his, much less can any one be a minister of 
 Christ's gospel, without the movings and drawings of his Holy 
 Spirit. There are many testimonies to its influences under the 
 old dispensation. Thus, it rested on the seventy elders — reached 
 unto two that were not in the tabernacle, but in the camp : and 
 in Neh. ch. ix. we read : " Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to 
 instruct them" — « Yet many years didst thou forbear and tes- 
 tify against them hy thy spirit in thy prophets"— •< Take not, 
 says David, thy Holy Spirit from me"—" Uphold me by thy 
 free Spirit" — " And now, says Isaiah, the Lord God and his 
 Spirit hath sent me." In short, it was by and through this holy 
 unction, that all the prophets spake from Moses to Malachi ; 
 and these revelations were the objects of the faith of all the saints 
 of old. 
 
 Seeing, therefore, that the direct and immediate drawings and 
 influence of the Holy Spirit abounded in the prophets and ministers 
 under the old outward covenant, are not its teaching and direction 
 to be sought, and regarded under the more inward and spiritual 
 one in which we now live? To decide this qaestion I need 
 only appeal to the holy apostle, in the third and fourth chapters 
 
86 
 
 to the Corinthians : « Who also,^* says he, <« hath made us able 
 ministers of the New Testament ; not of the letter, but of the 
 spirit ; for the letter killethf hut the spirit giveth life." " But if 
 the ministration of death, written and engraven on stones, 
 was glorious" — '* how shall not the ministration of the spirit he 
 rather glorious?'* « For we ^redLch not ourselves, but Christ 
 Jesus the Lord j and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake," 
 <* But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excel- 
 lency of the power may be of God, and not of «s." 
 
 3. The declarations and instructions of Christ to his disci- 
 ples, are conclusive on this subject. He commanded them 
 *< not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the 
 Father." And « ye, says he, shall receive power, after that 
 the Holy Ghost is come upon you*' — « without me ye can do 
 nothing." ** I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all 
 your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay, nor resist." " For 
 it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father that 
 speaketh in you" — *< and lo. Jam with you always, even unto 
 the end of the world." Here the promise to be with them, is 
 not limited to those whom he was then addressing, but to all his 
 disciples and ministers that should come after them, « even to 
 the end of the world." 
 
 4. I will conclude the testimonies of inspiration upon this 
 subject, by adding the following texts, taken, promiscuously, 
 from both the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 »< If any man speak," says the apostle Peter, «* let him 
 speak as the oracles of God : If any man minister, let him do 
 it as of the ability which God giveth." «* No man," says Paul, 
 " taketh this honour unto himself, ftjif he that is called of God, 
 as was Aaron." Tbe apostles « testified of what they had 
 seen, heard, felt, and handled of the word of life.' « Minis- 
 tering the gift according as they had received the same, as good 
 stewards of the manifold grace of God. " O, Timothy, keep 
 that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain 
 babblings, and opposition of science, falsely so called." « Now, 
 concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ig- 
 norant" — for " the manifestation of the spirit is given to every 
 man to profit withal. For to one is given, by the spirit, the 
 word of wisdom ; to another faith ; to another prophecy, &c. — 
 But all these worketh that one and the same spirit, dividing to 
 every man severally as he will," — ** for ye need not that any 
 man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you all 
 things, and is truth, and is no lie." « Having, then, gifts ac- 
 cording to the grace that is given us, whether prophesy, let us 
 prophesy according to the proportion of faith : or ministry, let us 
 
87 
 
 wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth, on teaching," &;c. 
 «* desire spiritual gifts — quench not the spirit, nor despise pro- 
 phesyings." " / sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore 
 they shall not projit this people at all," saith the Lord. « Ac- 
 cording to the grace of God which is given unto me, I have laid 
 the foundation." " For, though I be rude in speech, yet not in 
 knowledge ;" — and he gave some apostles, and some prophets, 
 and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the 
 work of the ministry , for the edifying of the body of Christ," 
 <* The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom" 
 — « for the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of 
 God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know 
 them, because they are spiritually discerned. For it is written, 
 I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to naught 
 the understanding of the prudent." *< For ye see your calling 
 brethren, how that not many wise men after thejiesh, not many 
 mighty f not many noble are called ; for, God hath chosen the 
 foolish things of the world to confound the wise"—** which 
 things also we speak ; not in the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." 
 
 I think it needless to enlarge, or to add much by way of 
 comment, on what I have quoted. Any one who, after reading 
 the New Testament, should believe that a minister of the gos- 
 pel can acquire any one of his qualifications for that station, 
 from a modern Theological Seminary^ must be fairly priest- 
 ridden. 
 
 II. The dictates of reason^ not less than the Scriptures, reject you) 
 theological system. 
 
 It has been the practice of the priesthood, in every age, since 
 the days of the apostles and primitive christians, to present re- 
 ligion to mankind enshrouded in mysticism, and clogged with 
 ridiculous, unavailing rites and ceremonies: to cry" down hu- 
 man reason, and to endeavour to bring the understandings of 
 men into bondage, by requiring an implicit faith in dogmas 
 founded on mysterious propositions. The further religion is 
 placed beyond the reach of intellectual inquiry, the greater 
 necessity there is for a priest to expound and teach it : the 
 more rites and ceremonies are multiplied, the more indispensa- 
 ble it becomes to have administrators to apply and enforce them. 
 Hence, it is impossible not to perceive the grand cause and ori- 
 
88 
 
 gin of the spurious systems of religion which to this day pre 
 vail throughout the world. And whilst mankind continue to 
 confer riches and honour on priests and professors, for pretend- 
 ing to teach them that which they already know, and for pre- 
 tending to do that for them which they can only do for them- 
 selves, there will never be an end to absurd creeds and systems, 
 iior graceless zealots to defend them ; and religion will continue 
 to be encumbered with a load of superstitious rites, and a swarra 
 of hireling teachers, «' ever learning, yet never able to come 
 to the knowledge of the truth " 
 
 The means which an infinitely merciful God has appointed 
 to bring his rational creation into the possession of eternal 
 happiness, can be nothing short of universal ; they are placed 
 within the reach of every soul, and hence must be beyond the 
 controul of contingent causes. The laws of life are declared by 
 inspiration to be « written not with ink, but with the spirit of 
 the living God ; not in tables of stone (or on paper only) but on 
 fleshly tables of the heart." " But this shall be the covenant 
 that I will make with the house of Israel ; after those days, 
 saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
 write it in their hearts," A power to obey or disobey this law 
 (however dangerous) is man's prerogative. " Choose ye this 
 day whom ye will serve" — « I have set before you life and 
 death, blessing and cursing." Thus man is endowed with^ree 
 'Will. Take that away, and he is no longer any thing but a 
 machine, put into action by the pleasure or contrivance of a 
 power witliout him : no longer accountable for his actions, nor 
 a fit subject for rewards and punishments. Hence the law of 
 God being written in his heart, man has no need of a learned 
 priest, to teach or expound it : — " And they shall teach no more 
 every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 
 know the Lord 5 for they shall all know me, from the least of 
 them, unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." Now this 
 is a reasonable system j a system adapted to the human under- 
 standing as well as to every possible condition of life. It leaves 
 the Deity in possession of his attributes oiinjinite mercy, good- 
 ness, and justice ; and by making man a/ree agent, he is thereby 
 properly and justly accountable to God for the use of the privi- 
 leges granted him. 
 
 No means, therefore, which are contingent, or accidental, 
 can be considered as essential to man's salvation. But a doctor 
 of divinity ; an outward teacher, and the possession of the 
 Scriptures, are all contingent means, dependent on circum- 
 stances and events not under man's controul they are not, 
 then, tssentiaL A man born at Constantinople, Pekin, or 
 
89 
 
 Mogadore, does not, cannot possess tliem. Shall he, there- 
 fore, perish forever? Yes ; according to your system, the mis- 
 fortune of being born in a heathen land renders man, necessa- 
 rily, an object of God's eternal, vindictive wrath ! Yet you 
 say the decree of God, made before time M^as, placed him there ! 
 He is no longer, then, to be esteemed a God " equal in all his 
 ways ,•" and his attributes of infinite mercy, infinite goodness, 
 and infinite justice, are mere nonentities ! ! 
 
 That human learning and the study of theology, are not 
 means by which man can be made a practical teacher of 
 religion, is further inferred from the nature of the gospel; 
 which the apostle declares to be <* the power of God unto salva- 
 tdon." Moreover, "Our gospel," says he, **came not unto 
 you in word only^ but also in power and in the Holy Ghost.*^ And 
 further : «< But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which 
 was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received 
 it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus 
 Christ." But the gospel which your ministers preach, is after 
 man ; obtained in theological seminaries :■ — tliey are taught if, 
 not by revelation, wAicA they deny, but by a professor of divinity. 
 If, therefore, we are to believe the apostle's testimony, the 
 gospel which he preached, and that which your divines preach, 
 are two very different gospels. They enter into the sheepfold, 
 not by Christ, (Jiis revelation) but through another door, — the 
 door of a seminary. These ministers declare their gospel 
 ♦< in word only .-" they have received it in the letter, and as no 
 stream can rise higher than its source, they become ministers 
 « of the letter only, which killeth," and not ministers of the 
 spirit, which " givoth life." " For the gospel," says Dell, <* is 
 the word of faith ; which word is the word in our hearts, ac- 
 cording to the tenor of the new covenant, wherein God saith, 
 « I will write my law in their hearts, and put it in their inward 
 parts:* But now the university divines, the truth being indeed 
 dead in their hearts, and having no presence nor power 
 there, they take it up out of the books and writings of men, 
 wherein it hath been buried : and by this means brkig forth a 
 dead doctrine to the world (which other men have sjwken, but 
 themselves have no experience of j and not the word of life, 
 which liath quickened them ; but only a dead letter, raised up 
 like the living letter, which they present to them ; as the witch 
 of Endor raised up a dead Samuel, in the outward habit and 
 appearance of the living Samuel, and presented him to Saul: 
 So these university divines, bring forth the outward garment 
 and appearance of the truth to the people, when they do best ; 
 
 M 
 
90 
 
 I)ut the substance, soul, and life of the truth, they cannot bring 
 forth ; because they have not the living word of God in their 
 hearts, but have only a dead word, which they gather out 
 of the books and writings of men. And this the university 
 divinity." 
 
 The evangelical prophet, looking, in the vision of light 
 through the long vista of futurity, saw clearly into the nature of 
 the gospel plan : *« A highway," says he, "shall be there ; and 
 it shall be called the way of holiness : the unclean shall not 
 pass over it ; but it shall be for these, the way-faring men, 
 though foolSf (as to worldly wisdom and learning shall not err 
 therein," And another of the prophets declares : " He hath 
 shewed thee, man, what is good; and what doth the Lord 
 require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk 
 humbly with thy God ?" Even in your own Confession of Faith, 
 chapter i. 7, we are told, that *« those things necessary to be 
 known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly 
 propounded and opened, in some place of Scripture or other, 
 that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of 
 the ordinary means^ may attain unto a sufficient understanding 
 of them." 
 
 III. The result of experience. 
 
 THIS is a highly important and conclusive branch of the 
 inquiry. Practice, and practice only, must decide the charac- 
 ter, test the truth or falsity of all systems which are capable 
 of being tried by this certain standard. Now from the evidence 
 furnished by the New Testament, it is demonstrable, that the 
 theology and learning of that time, were so far from being 
 made instrumental in the propagation of the gospel, that they 
 were found the strong^est barriers to its progress. " Christ 
 crucified," says the apostle, <• was to the Jews (the Chief Priests 
 and Scribes) a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks, (the most 
 learned nation of that day) foolishness." But I have above 
 shown the bearing which the Scripture has on this subject. I 
 will proceed to call your attention to the testimony furnished 
 by ecclesiastical history. In Mosheim, Vol. i. page 110, we 
 find the following remarks : 
 
 " The method of teaching the sacred doctrines of religion, 
 was, at this time, (the first and second centuries) most simple, 
 far removed from all the subtle rules of philosophy, and all the 
 precepts of human art. This appears abundantly; not only in 
 the writings of the apostles, but also in all those ef the second 
 
91 
 
 rentnry whicli have survived the ruins of time. Neither did 
 the apostles, or their diseiples ever think, of culledin!; into a 
 regular system^ the principal doctrines of the Christian religi'>n, 
 or of demonstrating them in a .scientific or geometrical order. 
 The beautiful and candid simplicity of those early ages, ren- 
 dered such philosophical niceties unnecessary ; and the great 
 study of those who embraced the gospel, was rather to express 
 its divine influence in their dispositions and actions^ than to exa- 
 mine its doctrine with an excessive curiosity, or to explain 
 them by the rules of human wisdom,^* In page 114, the same 
 author continues : " We may here remark, in general, that the 
 apostolic fathers, and the other writers, who, in the infancy of 
 the church, employed their pens in the cause of Christianity, 
 were neither remarkable for their learning nor their eloquence. 
 They express the most pious and admirable sentiments, in the 
 plainest and most illiterate style. This indeed is rather a mat' 
 ter of honour than of reproach to the Christian cause ; since we 
 see from the conversion of a great part of mankind to the gospel 
 by the ministry of weak and illiterate men, the pro- 
 gress of Christianity is not to be attributed to human means 
 hut to a divine porver," 
 
 Now, let us compare the assertions of Lyman Beecher, one 
 of your very orthodox men, with the above historical evidence, 
 confirmed by a " cloud of witnesses." In an address to the 
 <• Connecticut Charitable Society for the education of indigent, 
 pious young men for the ministry," which has been printed 
 and gone through two or three editions, tbis author makes the 
 following declarations : " Men unacquainted with theology are 
 unable to exert that religious and moral influence which it 
 belongs to the ministry to exert :" — *' 'I'he influence of such 
 illiterate men is totally incompetent to arrest human depra 
 vity :*' — " Illiterate men have never been the chosen instruments 
 of God to build up his cause." 
 
 Such gross misrepresentations, made in opposition to well 
 known facts, exhibit a degree, either of fanatical delusion, or 
 unblushing eff*rontery, to which we may in vain seek a parallel, 
 except in the annals of Popery. But further : in the same ad- 
 dress the author calculates that there are in the United States, 
 about three thousand educated ministers ; and, taking the Euro- 
 pean plan for his model, where he says there is one minister 
 for every thousand, he hence infers a deficiency of five thousand 
 ministers, and consequently about five millions of souls, '* desti- 
 tute of competent religious instruction.''* *' There are," continues 
 h« , *' fifteen hundred illiterate ministers, (besides the above 
 three thousand) but they are unacquainted with theology, and 
 
9^ 
 
 therefore unable to exert that religious, and moral, and literary 
 influence which it belongs to the ministry to exert." 
 
 This deficiency of five thousand ministers, is no doubt predi- 
 cated on the report made, (to the Presbyterian Board of Mis- 
 sions, I believe,) by Mills and Schermerhorn, alluded to in my 
 second letter. In this report these missionaries have excluded 
 the ministers of the Methodists, Quakers, and Baptists, as not 
 worthy of being noted, because too illiterate to *' exert any 
 moral influence." Thus, in their letters published in the 
 <* Luminary," they declare that from St. Louis to Boon^s Lick, 
 a space of about two hundred miles, was as destitute, or needs 
 missionary labour as much as the empire of Burmah, when 
 there were in tliat very space eleven Baptist Churches and 
 about thirteen or fourteen ordained preachers.* 
 
 That the Methodists and Quakers are also excluded, in your 
 calculations, from having any ** part or lot'* in the gospel mi- 
 nistry, may be inferred from the following extract of a letter 
 from one of your ministers, Thomas C. Searle, found in the 
 Wesleyan Repository, vol. i. page 97, and dated Indiana, May 
 5th, 1S21 : "We have a state," says the writer, *< containing 
 thirty-four thousand square miles of territory, and one hundred 
 and fifty thousand inhabitants. To supply the spiritual wants 
 of this great and rapidly increasing community rve have old 
 and young, firm and infirm, about ten ministers, who have been 
 classically and theologically educated for the ministry. Could our 
 brethren in the east see the anxiety with which these simple 
 heartedf and I trust, pious souls, are straining every nerve to 
 establish the preaching of the gospel among them, surely it 
 would reward past exertions and stimulate to new efforts." 
 
 What an awful concern ! the salvation of one hundred and 
 fifty thousand souls scattered over a surface of thirty-four 
 thousand square miles, dependent on the exertions of ten 
 « classically and theologically educated ministers :" no less 
 than fifteen thousand to each minister ! Now it is an incontro- 
 vertible fact, that the Methodists alone " have there many 
 ministers and many flourishing societies ;" and the Quakers, 
 the last year established a Yearly Meeting in that state, consti- 
 tuted of not less than sixty different meetings, a large propor* 
 tion of which are in Indiana. 
 
 Intending, in the sequel, to return to this part of the subject, 
 in order to show, that the views of your clergy as set forth in 
 the foregoing quotations, may be explained, on a diff*erent prin- 
 ciple than Sk mere fanatical delusion, I will here digress a little, 
 
 ♦ Vid.— Thoughts on ftfissiens, by Jojflj Taylor^ 
 
03 
 
 to answer the silly imputation so frequently cast on the Qua-' 
 kers and others who oppose theological seminaries, **that they 
 are enemies to literature, and the friends to ignorance," &c. 
 Now, as it respects the Quakers, (and I believe the Methodists 
 also,) nothing can be further from the truth. As far as human 
 learning is limitted to its natural and proper object, that of a 
 mean to convey a knowledge of men and of human affairs, no 
 people estimate it higher than the Quakers. In all their 
 monthly meetings provision is made for educating those of the 
 society who are destitute of means ; and in these meetings the 
 query " Do the poor freely partake of learning ?" is annually 
 read, and the answers sent up to the superior meetings, so that 
 if any defect should be discovered, in carrying this salutary 
 part of the discipline into effect, in any part of society, the proper 
 remedy may be applied. Hence it is, that no society on earth, 
 take them as a body, are better informed than they, in that 
 kind of knowledge, which is subservient to the common pur- 
 poses of life, and which may guard them against encroach- 
 ments upon their rights, both temporal and spiritual. The 
 Quakers are well aware, that it is, under Providence, to a 
 more enlarged acquaintance with men and things, than is pos- 
 sessed by other nations, which has, in a great measure, pro- 
 tected, and wc hope, in God, will continue to protect the people 
 of this land, from the ambitious designs of a set of men who 
 have in every age, made use of ignorance and superstition as 
 the means of tyrannizing over the consciences of the peo- 
 ple, and effecting their own elevation at the expense both 
 of their temporal and spiritual rights. As no people since 
 the reformation have suffered more from a mercenary priest- 
 hood, than they, so none are more on their guard ; and it is an 
 essential part of a Quaker's education, to make him acquainted 
 with the length and the bi'eadth, the height and the depth of 
 priestcraft. Human learning, therefore, when applied to these 
 uses, is of great importance to mankind. But we object only 
 to its abuse; we oppose the mischievous and fatal error of 
 making it the basis on which to build up a gospel ministry. 
 Would it not be the height of absurdity to charge a farmer 
 witli a love of ignorance, because he refuses to put his son to 
 the study of law to teach him how to plough and sow his field ? 
 Not less absurd is it to argue the necessity of learning Latin 
 and Greek to qualify a man to teach ihe plain, simple, and 
 self-evident precepts of Jesus Christ ; of reading the ^nei<J, 
 lUiad, and Odessy : the history and characters of the heathen 
 deities, as a mean to become acquainted with the God of 
 Israel 5— of studying the Latin poets, lascivious and immoral, 
 
9'i: 
 
 to enable liim to subdue his own lusts, and to teach to others 
 the pure morality of the gospel ; in fine,— of filling his head with 
 theological jargon, in order that he may comprehend the doc- 
 trine of the new covenant, obvious to the meanest capacity, and 
 engraven by the finger of God "on the fleshly tables of the 
 human heart.'* 
 
 Returning from this digression, I continue to trace the ef- 
 fects of theological systems, by the clear light of experirnce. 
 "We have found the theologians of our Saviour's time, in a state 
 comparable to old bottles, unfit to receive the « new wine of the 
 kingdom ;" — already filled with a fermenting mass of school 
 divinity, and *" vaunting their profound knowledge of the law, 
 and their deep science in spiritual and divine things, yet con- 
 stantly showing (like our moderns) their fallibility and their 
 ignorance, by their religious differences"— divided among 
 themselves, " into a great variety of sects, their mutual fears 
 of each other, (with the controuling influence of the civil power 
 of the Romans,) were the reasons of their mutual forbearance !" 
 Those of them who joined the Christian church, retained enough 
 of the old leaven to produce, by the controversies which they 
 raised, much trouble and schism among the believers ; to which 
 St. Paul alludes in his epistle to the Romans. Now, this de- 
 scription of the Jewish and Samaritan divines, will apply, in 
 tlie general, to the theologians of every age to the present day ; 
 and I confidently appeal to all history for the confirmation of 
 this assertion. Puffed up and *' vaunting their profound know- 
 ledge" always prepared for controversial warfare, and the 
 
 persecution of the weaker sects, when thwarting their ambi- 
 tion, unless prevented by the civil power. 
 
 During the first century, and part of the second, the gospel 
 continued to spread, and shine forth in all its attractive beauty 
 and sublimity. " At this time, says Mosheim, (Vol. i. page 
 183) there was not the least controversy about those capital 
 doctrines of Christianity, which were afterwards so keenly 
 debated in the church," " This is not surprising, continues 
 the same author, for the bishops of these times were plain and 
 illiteraie «ie?i." Again, « the number of learned men, which 
 was very small in the preceding (first) century, grew conside- 
 rably in this — and the christian doctor s, began to introduce their 
 s^ihilc and obscure erudition into the religion of Jesus ; to involve 
 in the darkness of a vain philosophy, some of the principal 
 truths of Christianity, that had been revealed with the utmost 
 plainness, and was indeed ohvio^ts to the meanest capacity." 
 *< But this venerable simplicity wasof short duration; its beauty 
 
 * See Mosh€im's Eel. His. vol. i. pp. 42, 44, 122. 
 
9fy 
 
 was gradually effaced by the laborious efforts of human learn.' 
 ing and the dark subtleties of imaginary science." Vol. i. pp, 
 175, 183. 
 
 Thus, whilst men looked only to the grace of Go<l, and the 
 pure manifestations thereof, to qualify them for the ministry ', 
 peace and purity reigned among them, and thousands, through 
 their preaching, flocked to the standard of Jesus. No contro- 
 versies arose, except what were excited by the Jewish divines, 
 **for the bishops were plain and illiterate nic«." But as soon as 
 *' the Christian doctors began to introduce their subtle erudition 
 into the religion of Jesus ;" as soon as they began to place their 
 reliance on the study of letters and divinity, for qualifications 
 to preach the gospel, how the whole scene changes ! Contro- 
 versies, schisms, persecutions follow in rapid succession ; and, 
 instead of a ministry, <* shod with the preparation of the gospel 
 of peace," and clothed with the whole armour of God ; the breast 
 plate of rigliteousness ; the shield of faith ; the sword of the 
 spirit ; and the helmet of salvation ; we behold a tribe of theo- 
 logians, inspired by the demon of discord, and corrupt, mer- 
 cenary, and ambitious, in the highest degree. This is well 
 attested by the writers of those times, upon whose authority 
 Mosheim presents the following statements : 
 
 2d Century. — The Christian doctors had the good fortune to 
 persuade the people that the ministers of the Christian church 
 succeeded to the character, rights, and privileges of the Jew- 
 ish priesthood. Vol. i. 179. 
 
 Synods were first established about the middle of the second 
 century. They abridged the privileges of the people, and 
 increased the power of the bishops : turned their influence into 
 dominion, and their councils into laws. Vol. i. 179. 
 
 An aspiring clergy claiming the rights of the priests under 
 the Mosaic dispensation, introduce tithes, first fruits, splendid 
 garments, and other circumstances of external grandeur, 
 Vol. i. 203. 
 
 Various divisions and heresies in the second century, pro- 
 duced by the Christian doctors and philosophers. Vol. i. 220^ 
 240. 
 
 3d Century. — The Christian doctors who had applied them- 
 selves to the study of letters and philosophy soon abandoned 
 the frequented paths, and struck out into the devious wilds ot 
 fancy. Vol. i. 273. 
 
 The pride and arrogance of the bishops increase in this cen- 
 tury, and the vices of the clergy become great. Vol. i. 265. 
 
 4:th Centiiry. — The subject «>f this fatal controversy which 
 kindled such deplorable divisions throughout the Christian 
 
96 
 
 world, was the doctrine of three persons in the Godhead ; a 
 doctrine, which in the three preceding centuries had happily 
 'escaped the vain curiosity of human researches, and been left 
 undefined, and undetermined by any particular set of ideas. 
 Vol. i. 410. 
 
 In this century was introduced the monstrous doctrine that 
 it was an act of vii'tue to deceive and lie, when by that means 
 the interests of the church mi^ht be promoted ; and also, that 
 errors in religion, when persisted in, were punishable with 
 civil penalties and corporeal tortures. Vol. i. 382. 
 
 Bth Century. — The deplorable schisms which divided the 
 churches, flowed chiefly from the unchristian controversies for 
 dominion and supremacy which reigned among those who set 
 themselves up for the fathers and defenders of the church. Vol. 
 ii. 28. 
 
 The vices of the clergy were now carried to the most enor- 
 mous length. Vol. ii. 30. 
 
 The sacred and venerable simplicity of the primitive times, 
 which required no more than a true faith in the word of God, 
 and a sincere obedience to his holy laws, appeared little better 
 than rusticity and ignorance to the subtle doctors of this quib^ 
 bling age. Vol. ii. 38. 
 
 6th & 7th Centuries. — The arts of a rapacious priesthood 
 were practised upon the ignoY-ant devotion of the simple. Vol. 
 ii. 214. 
 
 « The disputes about pre-eminence continue. The vices 
 of the clergy increase. Neither bishops nor presbyters, nor 
 deacons, nor even the cloistered monks, were exempt from the 
 general contagion ; and in those very places that were conse- 
 crated to the advancement of piety and the service of God, 
 there was little else to be seen, than ghostly ambition, insatia- 
 ble avarice, pious frauds, intolerable pride, the supercilious 
 contempt of the natural rights of the people, with many other 
 vices still more enormous." Vol. ii. 171. 
 
 From the seventh century to the dawn of the reformation in 
 the sixteenth, the state of the church (if church it can be 
 called) grew worse and worse ; and the " classically and theo- 
 logically educated" clergy, became still more than before, emi- 
 nently " distinguished for their gluttony, luxury, and lust :" 
 and the immense donations that were made to them by an ig- 
 norant, superstitious people, furnished them with ample means 
 of indulging in all manner of excess. " The piety in vogue, 
 consisted in building and embellishing churches and chapels, 
 in endowing monasteries,, in crusades to the Holy JLand^ and 
 
97 
 
 in missions to the heathens." <* The oriental doctors," says 
 Mosheim, " miserably divided among themselves, and involved 
 in the bitterest contentions and quarrels with the western 
 churches, lost all notion of the true spirit and genius of Chris- 
 tianity," and religion at this time, *• consisted almost entirely 
 in a motley round of external rites and ceremonies. The theo- 
 logians kept the Christian world in a constant agitation, and 
 endless controversies about the Trinity, the Eucharist, Bap- 
 tisms, Predestination, the worship of saints and images, and 
 other superstitious, unavailing rites j and failing to convince 
 each otlier by arguments, councils and synods, and having 
 succeeding in uniting the civil with the ecclesiastical states, 
 they resorted to the sword, the torture, fire and fagot, and 
 millions, and tens of millions, expiated their supposed heresies, 
 on the altar of orthodoxy I ! 
 
 Such are some of the characteristic features, displayed by a 
 "classically and theologically" educated ministry for more than 
 fifteen hundred years; yet, notwithstanding all this counter 
 testimony, not less ample than incontrovertible, your writers 
 and ministers gravely tell us, that no other ministry is capable 
 of exciting a proper moral influence in society ; and that it is a 
 ministry classically and theologically educated, and no other, 
 that God has always made use of to build up his cause ! ! ! 
 
 In contemplating the impressions, moral and religious, made 
 upon society by school divinitij in every age, and in all its varie- 
 ties, for sixteen hundred years, from the self-righteous Phari- 
 see, tithing mint, cummin and rue, down to the disciple of 
 Loyola, inculcating a morality, not less dangerous than licen- 
 tious ; — in tracing the character of the theologian, whether 
 moulded in the Jewish temple, or the Alexandrian school ; or 
 issuing from the Lyceum, tlie Academy, or the famous institu- 
 tion, *' de propaganda fide"; or armed with polemical weapons, 
 forged in tliC more modern manufactories, Cambridge, Oxford, 
 or Andover; in every individual of the species, we still find 
 the same generic features. Puffed up with his carnal wisdom, 
 and vaunting his superior knowledge ; seeking controversy ; 
 ambitious of titles, fame, wealth and worldly honours ; and 
 producing every where, contentions, quarrels, schisms, and 
 persecutions in the Christian church ; changing "the fruitful 
 field" into a wilderness ; the refreshing pool into " parched 
 ground;" and converting into " a habitation for dragons," the 
 most beautiful places of Zion, where " grew the grass, with 
 reeds and rushes !" 
 
 Martin Luther, the reformer, in testifying against the school 
 divinity of his time, su])posed that the vision in the 9th chapter 
 
 N 
 
gs 
 
 of Revelations, from verse 2d to 12tli, had reference to this 
 subject. The analoj^y, indeed, is so very striking, that hardly 
 any one could fail of making an application so perfectly easy 
 and natural. 
 
 Jliid he opened the bottomless pit ; and there arose a smoke out 
 of the pity as the smoke of a great furnace : and the sun and the 
 air were darkened, by reason of the smoke of the pit. Theology, 
 with all ♦* human doctrines," may, very aptly be compared to a 
 smoke ; and its effect is to blind the spiritual vision, interposing, 
 as a dark cloud, between God and the human soul. 
 
 ^nd there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and 
 unto them was given power as the scorpions of' the earth have 
 power. 
 
 The species of locust here selected for a comparison, as 
 far as it relates to its capacity for devastation, is no doubt the 
 African locust spoken of by Riley in his Narrative. *<Near 
 the mildde of this valley, says he, p. 473, we stopped to take 
 our liinner — my mind was absorbed in contemplating the riches 
 and beauties of bountiful nature, wlien I observed something 
 that appeared like a cloud of thick smoke, rising over the hill at 
 the north-east, and with the wind approaching as rapidly : I 
 remarked to my Jew, that there must be a monstrous fire in 
 that quarter ; no said he, they are only lucusts. In the mean 
 time the flight was fast approaching, and soon came within a 
 short distance, and directly towards us. Every labourer's at- 
 tention was immediately turned from his plough and other em- 
 ployment: the oxen were stopped and every one stood aghast 
 with apprehension and dismay painted in strong colours, on his 
 anxious countenance, fearing that his field was to become a 
 prey to this devouring plague. We were about two hours in 
 passing this host of destroyers, which, when on the wing, made 
 a sound as finely described in holy writ, "like the rushing of 
 horses into battle." 
 
 This figure applies both in a spiritual and temporal sense. 
 Wherever *» power has been given" the clergy, the kind of 
 ** moral influence exerted," has been a laying waste the walls 
 of Zion, devastating her fruitful fields, and green pastures: 
 and their extortion in the shape of tithes, church rates, and 
 a variety of other ecclesiastical demands, have largely contri- 
 buted to produce wretchedness and oppression in the fairest 
 and most bountiful countries on the globe. 
 
 ** And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he 
 striketh a man-~and the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses 
 prepared for battle.''* The millions, that have been wounded in 
 their consciences, persecuted, tortured, and burnt for their reli- 
 
99 
 
 gious opinions, by a *' classically and tlicologically educated 
 ministry," bear ample testimony to this siin^ ; their unceas- 
 ing controversies, and quarrels, and scholastic disputations, jus- 
 tify the comparison of these divines to horses, fierce and war 
 like — ** prepared for battle." 
 
 *' *i}id on their heads were, as it were crowns of gold" — alluding 
 to titles and degrees which they confer on each other, such as 
 Doctor of Divinity; Reverend; Right Reverend, &c. &;c.: 
 ** and these crowned ones John Huss called hypocritas coronatos, 
 crowned hypocrites : and by reason of these crowns, they have 
 authority and power among the multitudes of carnal Christians. 
 Yet have they not true crowns, but, as it were, crowns of gold, 
 which yet they are very proud of, and are much puffed up with 
 them, though usually they are set on the head of ignorance 
 and error-' — »« ^nd they had hair as the hair of women" 
 Effeminate in their habits; weak in that faith, '* which work- 
 eth by love to the purifying of the heart" — their ministry, 
 without power. " And their teeth were as the teeth of lions.*' 
 No set of men have warred more fiercely, nor bitten more 
 sharply ; each sect striving for supremacy, and wanting to 
 reign alone. *< dnd they had breast-plates, as it were, breast- 
 plates of iron.** *' And this is the pertinaceous and confident 
 presumption of each sect, on the truth and soundness of his 
 opinion: and by these breast-plates they are unconquerable; 
 and these are the principles of each sect" — " Jnd they had a 
 king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose 
 name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue he 
 hath his name Apollyon*' — "that is, a waster and destroyer of the 
 church." — "The deplorable schisms," saysMosheim, "which 
 divided the churches, flowed chiefly from the unchristian con- 
 troversies for dominion and supremacy, which reigned among 
 those who set themselves up/or the fathers, and defenders of the 
 church.** 
 
 It has been a common practice witli Protestants, to reproach 
 the clergy of the church of Rome, almost exclusively , with bigotry 
 and a persecuting spirit. A candid attention to historical fact, 
 will show such a charge to be highly unjust. The « classically 
 and theologically educated ministry" of every sect in Pro- 
 testant Christendom, have, in proportion to their numbers and 
 their power, yielded to this odious propensity, to a degree little 
 inferior to that of the h(dy see. If by the latter, more vic- 
 tims have suffered, it ought to be remembered that her power 
 extended over all Christendom, and that power was absolute. 
 If her clergy exceeded in pride, and arrogance, and bigotry, 
 let it not be forgotten, that kings knelt before them, and em- 
 
100 
 
 perors Lowed at their mandates ; whilst superstition and igno- 
 rance loaded them with riches and lionours. 
 
 Any other system of theology, under similar circumstances, 
 •would have produced the same results. Scholastic divinity and 
 persecution are twin brothers ; and the moment the first creed 
 "Was penned by scholastic divines, that moment were sown the 
 seeds of persecution, and the union of church and state, wher- 
 ever it took place, has produced a rapid vegetation, and an 
 abundant harvest of suffering victims. 
 
 It is thus that human learning and theology, when made the 
 medium of initiation into the ministry, seem to have had the 
 powers which fiction ascribed to the enchantress Circes of 
 changing men into wolves and tigers. The creeds and systems, 
 that have been the results of their carnal, finite, fallible con- 
 ceptions, have been, each in its turn, set up as the measure of 
 conscience; the standard of or//^odo.r^/ ,* and, as in the case of 
 the bed of Procrustes, these theologians have proceeded to the 
 work of lopping and stretching, in order to bring all to their 
 owi' dimensions. 
 
 For a confirmation of what I have said on persecution by the 
 Protestant divines, I refer the reader to Neal's History of the 
 Puritans ; Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers ; Fox's book of 
 Martyrs, and the History of Modern Europe. No sooner was 
 Episcopacy established in England under Queen Elizabeth, 
 than the clergy of that persuasion, commenced an unrelenting 
 war upon all dissenters. The clerical cry, " the church is in 
 danger," was set up, and every priest became an inquisitor, 
 and every prision an inquisition. Thousands were inoarcerated 
 for lion- conformity, and treated worse than felons. Many 
 perished in prison, by cold, hunger, and corporeal inflictions ; 
 others were banished, and a number under the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, were executed. This state of things continued during the 
 reigns of James I. the two Charles', and Cromwell. In Scot- 
 land, when the Presbyterian clergy gained the ascendancy, 
 they exhibited a temper and zeal equalled only by the barba- 
 rous ages : ** They committed," says the historian, ♦* furious de- 
 vastations on the sacred buildings, laying waste every thing 
 Tenerable and magnificent, that had escaped the storm of pop ular 
 insurrection. Abbeys, cathedrals, churches, libraries, records, 
 and even the sepulchres of the dead perished in one common ruin :" 
 *<wlth such indecent haste did the very persons who had just 
 escaped the rigor of ecclesiastical tyranny, proceed to imitate 
 those examples of severity, of which they had so justly com- 
 plained." — Mod. Eur. vol. ii. 400, 401. The same violence 
 appeared in this sect, during the Protectorship, and afterwards 
 
101 
 
 in New England, and in short, on every occasion where power 
 was put into their iiands, of which I shall speak more fully in 
 another place. 
 
 Ot all the sects in Christendom, none suffered so much from 
 the Protestant clergy as the Quakers. Their hold, undaunted 
 arid steady opposition to a corrupt, mercenary, and hireling 
 priesthood, and their expositions ot the mysteries of priesteratt 
 united all the Li^vitical tribe against them, wliose language 
 was that of the Chief Priests and Pharisees of old — *' If we 
 let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Ro- 
 mans shall come and take away our place and nation." Acting 
 under these apprehensions, the theologians excited the people 
 and the magistrates to commit the most unheard of outrages. 
 The Quakers were fined and imprisoned for using the plain 
 language ; for not taking off the hat ; for refusing to swear, 
 and other similar pretexts. Many died in piison, and many 
 from abuses of the rabble set on by the priests ; and many were 
 banished from their families. The grossest falsehoods and mis- 
 representations of them, flowed from the press and the pulpit^ 
 and found their way into civil and ecclesiastical history, and 
 we may now read in Mosheim, Burnet, Cotton Mather, and 
 other historians, for the most part correct on other subjects, the 
 most palpable falsehoods respecting the doctrines and practices 
 of those people. " The poor Quakers, says Jefferson, were 
 flying from persecution from England. They cast their eyes 
 on these new countries as asylums of civil and religious free- 
 dom ; but they found therrr-free only for the reigning sect. Se- 
 veral acts of the Virginia assembly of 1659, 1662, and 1693- 
 had made it penal in parents to refuse to have their children 
 baptized; had prohibited the unlawful assembling of Quakers ; 
 bad made it penal for any master of a vessel to bring a Quaker 
 into the state ; had ordered those already here, and such as 
 should come thereafter, to be imprisoned till they showld 
 abjure the country ; provided a milder punishment for their 
 first and second return, but death for the third ; had inhi- 
 bited all persons from suffering their meetings in or near their 
 houses, entertaining them individually, or disposing of books 
 which supported their tenets." Notes on Virginia, Bait. edit, 
 pages 158, 159. Now I think no one can mistake the meaning 
 of all this — " If we suffer these people, they will t^ke away 
 our placeJ* 
 
 From this general view of the practical tendency of school 
 divinity when introduced into the Christian church ; and its 
 direful effects on both religious and civil society, in every case, 
 and in all ages of the world, especially when accompanied with 
 
102 
 
 power ; I will turn to inquire more particularly, whether the 
 system which you arc now pursuing with so ardent a zeal, has 
 any superior claim to our regard. — 1 proceed to prove the 
 following positions : 
 
 1. Your call is ovtward and human. — This appears from the very 
 nature of it. " Why," says Lyman Beecher in the Address 
 before mentioned, '» why is not every eye looking out for some 
 poor young man of talt nts and piety to set his face towards the 
 ministry with all eagerness r" The agent for the « American 
 Education Society," writes thus to a friend in Charleston : — 
 <« The good people in Maine have written to me for seventeen 
 hentjiciarits, and engaged to educate them in their academies 
 and colleges" — " Almost any person can educate a minisU r. 
 I am doing it : you must do it." — See << The Southern Evangeli- 
 cal Intelligencer." 
 
 In the Boston Recorder of May IS, are found the following 
 extracts of letters to the aforesaid agent, 
 
 tfjs/'e'io Haven, Con, Oct, 11, 1821. 
 
 ** Dear Sir — Besides the young men I mentioned to you, there 
 are others of equal promise, who would he willing and glad to 
 study. If you will let me know immediately how many besides 
 B and H can be received, though the number bo fif- 
 
 teen or twenty, there is no doubt that they can easily Jind them,''' 
 
 " JVew Haven f Con, Dec, 24, 1821. 
 
 «< Bear »9ir— -There are four or five apprentices among us, 
 who would h^ willing io commence their studies, could sufficient 
 encouragement be given. They feel a desire to be ministers : 
 but are reluctant to relinquish their present employments, with- 
 out a higher measure of encouragement than I have ventured 
 to give them." 
 
 " Farrington, Con. Oct. 26, 1821. 
 
 <« Bear Sir — There is with us a young man whom I could 
 confidently recommend, could he be released from his present 
 obligations. He will be twenty -one years old next spring, and 
 till then is indented to a farmer. He had never thought of quali- 
 fying himself for the sacred office, till I mentioned the subject 
 to him. He has a sound mind in a sound body — of good appear- 
 ance, winning manners, Sfc." 
 
 Thus the call is from man — "Almost any one can make a 
 minister," says the American agent, « I am doing it. You must 
 
103 
 
 do it." — and those who never even, thought of the ministry^ arc- 
 taken from their useful employments, and pressed into the 
 service. 
 
 The doctrine of the necessity of an inward and spiritual call, 
 to the ministry, is so clearly set forth in the New Testament, 
 that no Christian sect that I ever lieard of, has gone so far as 
 to reject it, in theory, at least. The above proves that, in your 
 practice, an inward and divine call is substantially rejected — 
 « Any one may educate a minister." Moreover, your call 
 precedes the preparation ; but in the divine appointment, the 
 preparation precedes the call. 
 
 2. Four preparation is outward and human. We learn the 
 nature of the studies pursued in your theological seminaries, 
 by the titles of the dissertations, delivered by the students of 
 of Jindover^ at their annual examination, and published in the 
 Essex Register of the 29th September, 1821, in Salem, Mas- 
 sachusetts. The following are some of them. 
 
 1. <' How far should philosophy be admitted to direct the in- 
 terpretation of Scripture V* 
 
 2. « Connexion between intellectual philosophy and Christian 
 eloquence ?" 
 
 3. *< Comparison of sacred and secular eloquence." 
 
 4. '< The eloquence of Curran." 
 
 5. *< On tlie application of iwd?^cfiv6 p/iiio5op/it/ to the Scrip- 
 ture doctrine of man's renovation by the power of God." &c. &c. 
 
 In your church government it is recommended that no can- 
 didate, except in extraordinary cases, be licensed, unless after 
 his having completed the usual course of academical studies, 
 he shall have studied divinity, at least two years, under some 
 approved divine or professor of theology ; and also, that before 
 a candidate is licensed to preach, the presbytery shall require 
 of him — 1. A Latin Exegesis on some common head in divi- 
 nity. 2. A critical exercise. 3. A lecture. 4. A popular 
 serm(ni. Vid. Constitution of the Presbyterian church, pp. 
 405, 406. 
 
 The foregoing extracts prove that your system does not dif- 
 fer, essentially, from that of which I have before written, and of 
 the fruits and effects of which I have presented a brief outline, 
 according to the experience of all ages. It is the same sys- 
 tem, in substance, against which the Holy Apostle warned tlic 
 Colossians — *< Beware, says he, least any man spoil you through 
 philosophy and vain deceit ;" and concerning which, the same 
 Apostle cautioned his beloved son Timothy, who was entering 
 into the ministry — « Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which 
 was given thee by prophecy ^^ (not by a seminary) — and " avoid 
 profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science." « For 
 
104 
 
 the time will come, (and is it not now come ?) when they will 
 not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they 
 heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears," 
 
 S. Your ordination is outward and human, and an empty , for- 
 mal imitation of a miracle performed^ in certain cases, by the 
 Apostles. 
 
 Amon,^ the exercises required of the candidate as above 
 stated, tiiat of preaching a popular sermon is one ; and one, no 
 doubt of much importance ; for without this qualification he 
 might not have a call. But if the congregation aniong whom 
 he has exercised his gift, are satisfied with it, then a call is 
 made, (not by the Holy Spirit) but by the congregation ; and 
 the presbytery, if they find the candidate's knowledge of 
 « Philosophy, Ecclesiastical History, Theology, and the Greek 
 and Hebrew languages," sufficient for a minister, proceed to 
 the laying on of hands, first obtaining a pledge from the can- 
 didate that he will maintain and preach the doctrines contained in 
 the Confession of Faith, and no other. 
 
 There is no part of your scheme which discloses more fully 
 the cloven foot of priestcraft, than the views held up by your 
 clergy on the subject of ordination. In the ♦« Presbyterian 
 Magazine," published in Philadelphia, and conducted by no 
 less than twelve of the reverend D. D.'s of that city, I find an 
 essay in the second number, on " Lay Preaching," written by 
 W. M. Engles, one of the conductors, from which I extract the 
 following : 
 
 <* The authority to .exercise the functions of this office (of a 
 minister) can only be communicated by those who already pos- 
 sess that authority. The Apostles who received an extraordi- 
 nary call to the ministry, did, by a particular ceremony, com- 
 municate ministerial authority to those who were to take part 
 with them in the work ; and it is by an imitation of their ex- 
 ample, that a regular succession of gospel ministers has been 
 preserved in the church. None but the lawless and disorderly 
 will deny that a succession in the ministry is to be preserved in 
 this way : that ministers of the gospel alone, have the autho- 
 rity to admit others to be co-workers with them, to the whole 
 extent of ministerial duty." 
 
 I shall now proceed to unfold the false character of the pre- 
 tensions set forth in this extract : 
 
 1. The word ordain, furnishes, of itself, no evidence of the use 
 of a" particular ceremony." 
 
 The verb ordain, is. in various places in the New Testament, 
 put for constitute j appoint j make ; elect. Thus, we are told 
 
102^ 
 
 in Mark iii. 14, that " Jesus ordained twelve to be with him.'* 
 Here the verb in the original is TloieUf facio^ i. e. to consti- 
 tute ; make ; or appoint, and has no more reference to ** a 
 particular ceremony," than the word ordained, in Acts xvii, 
 31 — «' that man whom he hath ordained ,•" or the same word in 
 xiii. 48 and x. 42 ,• " ordained to eternal life ;" " ordained of God." 
 Neither does the original word in Acts xiv. 23, and translated 
 ordainedf justify the inference, that a laying on of hands, was 
 resorted to. Tlie verb used in this place is Xet^oroni*, i. e. 
 to appoint by sutFrage, (per sufFragia creo) to choose or elect : 
 and this construction receives additional strength from the cir- 
 cumstance, that when the laying on of hands is p;»rticularly 
 mentioned, a different verb is used, to wit, E^inen/At, (impon > :) 
 as in Acts xiii. 3 and 1 Tim. iv. 14. 
 
 2. The assertion that ** the. Apostles who received an extra- 
 ordinary call to the ministry, did, by a particular ceremony, 
 communicate authority to those who were to take part with 
 them in the work,'* is unfounded, 
 
 « And they appointed two, Justus and Matthias," Acts i. 
 33. In this appointment all the disciples, it appears, were 
 concerned, and not being able to agree in the choice, two were 
 were elected : and to decide on one of these, an appeal was 
 made to God, by the casting of lots ; <' and the lot fell upon Mat- 
 thias ; and he was numbered with the Apostles." Here was 
 no laying on of hands. The whole matter was determined ** by 
 God and the people." 
 
 Neither did Paul obtain his *' ministerial authority" by a 
 human ordination. " But when it pleased God," says he, 
 *< who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by 
 his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that T might preach him 
 among the heathen ; immediately I conferred not with flesh and 
 blood : neither went 1 up to Jerusalem to them which were Apos- 
 tles before mr : but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto 
 Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem,** 
 &c. — Gal. i. 15 to 18. Thus Paul, without even seeing any 
 of the Apostles, exercised that function for three years, taking 
 « part with them in the work." Now, this conduct of Paul 
 was, agreeably to the views of your clergy, « lawless and dis- 
 orderly." 
 
 *' And at that time there was a great persecution against the 
 church wliich was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered 
 abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except 
 the »Spostles.^* «« Therefore they that were scattered abroad, 
 went every where preaching the word." Acts \iii. 1» 4. 
 
 Here we find all the disciples, who were scattered abroad 
 
 
 
106 
 
 by the persecution, assuming « ministerial authority" without 
 human ordination ; the Apostles remaining at Jerusalem. The 
 Holy Ghost had sealed their commission, as he had that of Paul, 
 and they <» consulted not with flesh and blood ;" and this commis-' 
 sion extended then, and still continues to extend to every Chris- 
 tian, qualified by the grace of God to execute it. This is plainly 
 taught by the apostle James, who in his general epistle to the 
 twelve tribes, scattered abroad, tells them — « Brethren, if any 
 of you do err from the truth, and any one convert him ; let him 
 know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his 
 ways, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of 
 sins." James v. 19 and 20. Likewise the Apostle Paul : " Andh« 
 that prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification, and exorta- 
 tion, and comfort." " Md ye may all prophesy , (having gifts) 
 one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.*^ 1 Cor. 
 xiv. 3 and 31. Again, the same Apostle says, in 1 Thess. 
 xi. 4, *• As we were allowed of God [and not by human ordi- 
 nation] to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak ; 
 not as pleasing men, but God, who trieth our hearts." — «* And 
 if any man minister,'' says Peter, *< let him do it as of the 
 ability which God giveth." 1 Peter iv. 11. Now, compare this 
 mild, gentle rule and government of these pious, devoted men, 
 with that advocated by W. M. Engles, and his brethren ; 
 who, like Theudas of old, « boasting himself to be somebody," 
 thunders forth anathemas against every one who shall presume 
 to preach, that has not graduated in a college, pronouncing 
 them ** fanatics and disturbers of the church of Christ I .'" 
 
 Now, had these high-minded ones profited by the instructioa 
 afforded in the following examples of « that humble man Mo- 
 ses," afld our blessed Saviour, they would not exhibit such un- 
 becoming arrogance. 
 
 « And there ran a man and told Moses, and said, Eldad and 
 Metlad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua said, my lord 
 Moses, forbid them : and Moses said unto him, enviest thou for 
 my sake ? wmid God that all the Lord's people were prophets J* 
 Numb. xi. 27, 29. 
 
 ** And John answered and said, master, we saw one casting 
 out devils in thy name, and we forbad him, because he followeth 
 not with us: and Jesus said unto him, forbid him not; for he 
 that is not against us is for us.*' Luke ix. 49, 50. 
 
 The following texts are quoted, among others, in favour of 
 human ordination : 
 
 " And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands 
 on them, they sent them away." Acts xiii. 3. Now, mark 
 here, that it is declared in verse 2d, that « the Holy Ghost 
 
107 
 
 said, separate me Barnabas and Saul ;" and in the 4th verse* 
 "80 they being seni /or i^ by the Holy Ghost departed;'* and 
 thus it was the Holy Ghost, * and not the laying un of hands,* 
 that imparted ** ministerial authority'* to these Apostles, to 
 perform a particular service. Moreover* they had exercised 
 this authority before, as appears by the last verse of the pre- 
 ceding chapter : Paul had been in the station for fifteen years ; 
 vid. Gal. ii. 1 and 9. It is absurd, therefore, to suppose that 
 this ceremony was used to confer a power, which they had be- 
 fore possessed in an eminent degree. 
 
 « Neglect not the gift that is in thee," says Paul to Timothy, 
 « which was given thee by prophecy f with the laying on of the 
 hands of the Presbytery.'* 1 Tim. iv. 14-. The ceremony in 
 this case, had no more to do with communicating ministerial 
 authority, than in the preceding ; the gift was conferred, as 
 the Apostle expressly declares, by the spirit of prophecy ; and 
 as he reminds Timothy in 2 Tim. i. 6. that " the gift of God" 
 which was in hinit was by the putting on of his hands, he both 
 shows that the laying on the hands of the presbytery had no 
 agency herein, and that he arrogates nothing to himself, de- 
 claring the gift to have been conferred by the spirit of pro- 
 phecy, thus considering himself the mere passive instrument 
 through which this gift was conveyed. From all which it is 
 evident that, 
 
 3. The Apostles never arrogated to themselves the power of 
 conferring «' ministerial authority " nor is there any evidence 
 'whatever of their appointing their successors, or co-adjutors, by 
 virtue merely of their Jlpostleship. 
 
 The Apostles, on various occasions, conferred ihc Holy 
 Ghost by the imposition of hands, but this was a power extra- 
 ordinary and accidental, as it regarded their office as ministers. 
 There is but one source from which ministerial power and au- 
 thority, ever was, is, or can be derived, and tliat is the Holy 
 Spirit. This position is so clearly set forth in aJI the New 
 Testament, as to render it unnecessary to make quotations to 
 prove it. But although it were to be admitted, that the Apos- 
 tles exercised the power of conferring ministerial authority, 
 yet this would avail the clergy nothing, unless they could prove 
 that they occupy the high ground — have received the " extra- 
 ordinary call** and the gifts which these holy men received. — 
 But this, I believe, they do not pretend to. — Who ever heard of 
 their conferring the Holy Ghost ? of healing the sick ? or cleans- 
 ing the leper ? But the power, we are told, has been trans- 
 mitted through a regular succession of gospel ministers from 
 the Apostolic age to the present time ! « Who would not shwl- 
 
108 
 
 der," to adopt the language of the writer in the Presbyterian 
 Magazine — " who would not shudder at the thought of minis- 
 terial authority being limited to, and transmitted by, a classi- 
 cally and theologically educated ministry, such as history 
 proves it to have been ? — a ministry who have turned Chris- 
 tendom into an aceldama, and the blood of whose victims, 
 crieth up from the face of the whole earth — a ministry, to use 
 the words of the historian, «» distinguished (for more than one 
 thousand years) by their gluttony, luxury, and lust ! !" 
 
 It is thus that the ch-rgy, conscious that an attempt to sup- 
 port their pretensions on the ground of an *' extraordinary 
 call" would be vain and hopeless ; endeavour to establish the 
 sanctity of their laws, and their claim to exclusive privilege, 
 througli and by the succession; a desperate alternative, to 
 maintain a desperate cause. <» The succession," says a certain 
 writer, ♦» cannot be proved. Its advocates are obliged to trace 
 it through children, heretics, schismatics, infidels, idolators, 
 simonists, drunkards, adulterers, sodomites, and murderers : 
 but after raking tlirough all this filth, they cannot make it out. 
 The pretence then of being in the succession, is a mere arbi- 
 trary assumption : there is not a minister in Christendom, who 
 «an demonstrate, upon this principle, the legality of his orders." 
 
 In vain, therefore, are the efforts to attach a mysterious 
 power and sanctity to this rite, as exercised by theologians ; 
 in vain is it clothed with all the " pomp and circumstance," and 
 solemnity of an outward religion ; common sense withdraws 
 the flimsy veil, and discerns nothing but a formal, mechanical 
 operation, bereft of powder, or virtue ; the mere skeleton, the 
 caput mortuum of an apostolic, spiritual investiture. 
 
 The reverend writer in the Magazine before quoted, re- 
 marks : — <* that lay preaching has a tendency to produce the 
 most erroneous notions — tliat Christians in private life should 
 do no more than preach by their example, [a very good sort of 
 preaching, and which few of the clergy have practised"] — that a 
 blessing can reasonably be expected only upon a proper appli- 
 cation of human exertions — and that a man who urges his spi- 
 ritual call to preach, when destitute of necessaiy human learn- 
 ing (not college bred) is a fanatic, and is to be avoided as a 
 disturber of the church of Christ." Now, when we contemplate 
 the perpetual quarrels, disturbances, persecutions, and blood- 
 shed produced in <' the church of Christ" by nlearned ministry, 
 in all ages, and especially the « ^Mma7i exertions" displayed by 
 the Calvinistic brethren of this writer in Geneva, Holland, 
 England, Scotland, and Boston ; instead of declaiming contu- 
 meliously against lay-preaching, and contending for exclusive 
 
109 
 
 privilege, I think they have great cause to adopt the language^ 
 " to us belongeth blushing and confusion of face." There 
 breathes through this whole essay of W. M. Engles, such a spi- 
 rit of intolerance, narrow-minded bigotry, and presumption, as 
 Jairlij entitles the writer, and all who think with him, to the 
 severe reproof given by the Saviour to some in his time, whose 
 characters were fashioned in the same mould — " Wo unto you 
 Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye shut up the kingdom 
 of heaven against men ; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither 
 suffer ye them that are entering to go in." Mat. xxiii. 13. 
 
 On the whole the pretensions of the modern clergy, are no 
 less at variance with the doctrines and examples found in the 
 New Testament, than with the nature of the gospel itself. In 
 the primitive church, there was no privileged order of men : no 
 clergy ; no laity. These distinctions were the after-work 
 of priest craft. No peculiar privileges were claimed or 
 usurped by the Apostles nor their co-adjutors ; nor any other 
 influence exerted than what was obtained through the medium 
 of a voluntary iiomage paid to holiness and purity. Here we 
 find no written creeds nor systems of theology ; for the articles 
 of a Christian's faith are few and practical, and engraven. on 
 his heart. Here we read of no Reverends, nor Right Reverends; 
 for the disciples practised their Lord's lesson, not to seek honour 
 one of another, but to seek the honour which cometh from God only;— 
 no councils, or synods ;* for they courted not power, but obeyed 
 their master's command : he that would be great among you, let 
 him be your servant; no begging in the name of religion ; no 
 cry of ** give, give," for they took care of their flocks, not for 
 filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; going forth preaching, and 
 *' taking nothing of the Gentiles;" remembering their Lord's 
 saying : ♦« that it is more blessed to give than to receive.** 
 
 Wlierc, then, are we to look for this doctrine of exclusive 
 privilege ? In the church of Rome. Here the system had, if not 
 its origin, its growth, and here it was matured. A layman 
 must not read his Bible, nor preach, nor exhort, even in his 
 own family. In every case tf)uehing religion or conscience, 
 the ])riest must be consulted. The priest was the layman's 
 casuist, his confessor, his director, and without him he must do 
 nothing. The refoi-mation has mutilated, but not destroyed this 
 fabric ; its foundation has never yet been broken up — some of its 
 
 ♦*' These councils, of which -we Jlndnot the smallest trace, before the middle 
 of this (2d.) ceutuiy, changed thelwhole face of the church, and gave it a new 
 form : for by them the ancient privileges of the people were considerably 
 diminished^ and the pover and authority of the bishops greatly augmented. 
 Mosheim, vol. i. p. 178- 
 
110 
 
 pillars are yet standing j the most conspicuous of which is thkt 
 near the pulpit with okuination inscribed upon it. A phalanx of 
 the Levitieal tribe surrounds it. Does a poor layman approach ? 
 They brandish their carnal weapons ; he is abo^it to touch their 
 bone and their Jlesh ; and they (as it were) curse him to his face ! I 
 Leaving the subject of ordination, I proceed to examine other 
 parts of your system. From statements now before me, the 
 buildings, furniture, &c. at the famous Andover Seminary, arc 
 in a style wholly at variance with the plainness and simplicity 
 of the gospel. Amongst other extravagancies, 1 note the fol- 
 lowing ; 
 
 1. A house for professor Griffin, hidlt in the most elegant and 
 expensive style — cost, over twenty-four thousand dollars. 
 
 2. A house for professor Stuart — cost, over ten thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 3. A chapel, finished Vfith mahogany ; the floor covered with 
 an elegant carpet which cost one hundred and fifty dollars ; 
 and ornamented with an entry lamp of the most extravagant 
 fashion. Cost of the building forty thousand dollars. 
 
 4. The sums of money given to this Seminary by a few indi- 
 viduals only, by bequest, donations, &c. amounted in 1821, to 
 near four hundred thousand dollars ! ! 
 
 5. The professors complain that fifteen hundred dollars a year 
 is insufficient to maintain them, although they have their houses 
 furnished free of expense. Now it is with this display of 
 worldly pomp, and grandeur, and fashion, before them; and 
 under the tuition of such professors, that the « pious young 
 men" educated for the ministry^ are to imbibe the self-denying 
 precepts of the gospel ! ! But it is not at Andover only, that 
 this extravagance is exhibited ; it is diffused throughout the 
 whole system, — it is even carried to the heathen world. *< Dr. 
 Carey's house," says Harriet Newell, (at Serampore,) *« ap- 
 peared like a palace to us ; he keeps a large number of Hindoo 
 servants — he is now advanced to a state of honour, with six 
 thousand dollars a year — the garden is large and much more 
 elegant than any I ever saw in America." 
 
 In order to support such a system as this, immense sums of 
 money are requisite ; and no pains are spared to obtain it. 
 Your clergy, with their caterers and agents, by exhortations, 
 by entreaties, and even by threats and denunciations, have 
 opened an immense number of small streams, which flowing 
 together, grow into large rivers, and find their way to Andovei\ 
 Princeton, or Serampore. It is thus that innumerable societies 
 are formed of various kinds of grades, as ** Female Societies, 
 Cent Societies, Mite Societies, Children Societies, and even 
 
Ill 
 
 Negro Societies, both bond and free. One leaves off the use 
 of butter ; another wears coarse shoes ; another undressed cloth ; 
 and thus, even the necessaries of life are parted with by the 
 poor and needy, in order tliat priests and professors may dwell 
 in houses built in the most extravagant style, and live in a 
 corresponding manner ! ! " Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees, 
 hypocrites ! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the 
 men that walk over them, are not aware of them — ye destroy 
 widow's houses — grind the face of the poor ; and load men with 
 burthens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not 
 the burdens with one of your fingers." 
 
 At the Princeton Seminary, the same system of expenditure 
 is, in degree, manifested, as at Andover. The funds of the 
 former, however, are not so large as those of the latter. The 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States, on 
 behalf of this institution, say : 
 
 « Have you (addressing the ministers) reminded your flocks 
 of what themselves owe to that gospel ? Have you pressed upon 
 them the command of our Master, to << commit his truth to 
 faithful men, who shall be able to teach it ? A command wc 
 cannot fulfil unless theyprit the means [money] within our power. 
 Have you set before their eyes, the hour of death, and the 
 solemnity of judgment, and asked them how they can answer it 
 to Jesus Christ to let his truth perish before their eyes ? If you 
 have not done this, you have not yet fulfilled your duty to God 
 and the church ; and if you will do it, the Assembly can never 
 be brought to believe that you will plead in vain. They will 
 not, they can not believe, that while the hands that were pierced 
 are stretched out with a request for such an offering, a Christi«tn 
 oan be found in all our bounds who will refuse his Lord ?" 
 
 Here we have the Saviour again betrayed ; and transformed, 
 ridiculously enough, into a modern missionary, begging money 
 to buy a little Latin and Greek for his ministers! We should 
 not be much surprised to see this happy thought transferred upon 
 canvass, and handed about to obtain money from the people. 
 Should your Synod resolve upon this measure, I would invite 
 their attention to the following contrasts : 
 
 1. Lyman Beeeher holding a paper in his hand, on one side 
 of which is written : <* Church and state — put not asunder what 
 God hath Joined :'* and on the other side, ** Homogeneous in- 
 fluence." 
 
 2. The missionaries dinVng in '* Dr. Carey's palace at Sc- 
 rampore," on the sumptuous fare described by one of their 
 number, (see letter 2d.) and opposite to this, our Lord and his 
 disciples sitting on the ground, eating bread and fish. 
 
lis 
 
 3. Professor Griffin in his elegant house at jSwdover, rcceiying 
 the coppers from a Cent Society of negro slaves. 
 
 4. Our Lord's disciples going forth to preach the gospel ; 
 the foremost holding a roll, on which are written these words : 
 " Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes—take nothing for 
 your journey ;" at a short distance is seen a modern missionary 
 on his way to the heathen, reading a paper, on which is written : 
 « Outfit two thousand six hundred dollars ; with one thousand 
 dollars per annum— « quite two little."* 
 
 5. **The good Dr. Carey" pocketing his annuity of six 
 thousand dollars, whilst Paul is passing by, on his return from 
 Antioch, holding in his hand, his Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 in which we read these words— « What is my reward then ? 
 Verily that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel 
 of Christ without charge** — «' taking nothing of the Gentiles." 
 
 6. William Bartlett presenting a heavy purse to the agent 
 of the Education Society, and, at the same time kneeling to re- 
 ceive a crown from Lyman Beeoher^ inscribed with the word 
 
 IMMORTAIilTY. 
 
 • See Christian Repository, vol. i. No. 42, In which it is stated, that to pre- 
 pare, to equip, and to land esich nussionary, costs the British public not less 
 than 600;.— 2666 «toUar». 
 
LETTER Y. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
 
 THE contrast which presents between the ancient and pre- 
 sent modes and exertions to spread the gospel, cannot but 
 strike every reflecting mind. So far from money being thought, 
 in the primitive times, as an essential in the diffusion of the 
 gospel, it is, in the New Testament, declared to be *' the root of 
 all evil;" and there is not a single call made for it, from the 
 mouths of the Apostles, except for the support of the poor in the 
 church ; and to those who had the means, a recommendation to 
 receive into their houses, and entertain such as travelled in the 
 service of the gospel. But now " tempora mutantur tt vos mu- 
 tamini in illis ;'* and money is the only lever that can put in 
 motion your ponderous theological machinery. Calls are nume- 
 rous, and loud, and strong ; not for the poor of your churches, 
 for so far from giving to them, they are organized into Cent 
 Societies^ and their last pittance is thus extorted from them ; 
 but, to supply the insatiable cravings of your clergy. And 
 these calls are not from Synods only, but from all quarters. 
 Your religious newspapers are full of tliem. 
 
 *« What must be done ?'' says Lyman Beecher, in the ad- 
 dress before quoted : " The press must groan in the communi- 
 cation of our wretchedness ; and from every pulpit in the land, 
 the trumpet must sound, long and loud. The nation must be 
 awakened, or we are undone. Men of wealth, help ! we en- 
 treat you, help to save your country from ruin" — " and mil- 
 lions of your countrymen from hell ! Are you friends to civil 
 liberty? give!— do it quickly, for while you read, they die, and 
 go to the judgment: and with all the expedition that you can 
 make about seven hundred and fifty thousand must die in this 
 Christian land, destitute of the means of grace, before you can 
 send to them one competent religious instructor — Give, tliat you 
 may provide for your chihlrcn at home, and abroad, an inheri- 
 tance uncorrupted, and undefiltd, and infading in heaven /" 
 
 A writer in the « Guardian" of December, 1S20, printed at 
 New Haven, says: "To one inquiringwhathemustdo to inherit 
 
 p 
 
114 
 
 eternal life, the Saviour said, sell all that thou hast and give 
 to the poor (not to the clergj) — the same Saviour demands some 
 of our property (for the priesthood !) that we may have treasure 
 in heaven" — <* shall we not obey him, and spare a little of what 
 is given us, for the salvation of souls?" 
 
 A certain Jacob Sherred of New York, having bequeathed a 
 large amount to a theological seminary, the editor of the Chris- 
 tian Repository, in No. I, makes the following comment : "Mr. 
 Sherred has done well; has obeyed his Lord's command, * lay 
 up treasure in heaven'' — let no Christian die without contributing 
 largely to the Lord's treasury." 
 
 In a discourse delivered by Philip Lindsay before the Pres- 
 bytery of New Brunswick, at their meeting in Trenton, Oct. 
 6, 1S18, is found the following : " Happy the man, who, whilst 
 lie is prospered in business, knows how to bestow to the best 
 account (i. e. to the priesthood) the fruits of prosperity. Verily, 
 he shall be prospered more abundantly in this life, and in the 
 life to come he shall wear a brighter crown, than all the wealth 
 (^created worlds could furnish.' J" 
 
 Thus the doctrine is plainly set forth, that the salvation both 
 of the country and people, depends wholly on freely bestowing 
 our money, to replenish the pockets of the priests and professors. 
 But your clergy do not stop here: they carry this matter fur- 
 ther than even Simon Magus himself; for, although it consti- 
 tutes a leading article of your faith, that works have nothing 
 to do with otir salvation ; yet, it seems the work of giving our 
 money freely to the priesthood, is an exception to the rule, and on 
 the strength of such donations we are promised *♦ treasure in 
 heaven," and ** fl brighter crown than all the wealth of created 
 worlds could furnish." This species of *' holy cunning" to extort 
 money, cannot be too much reprobated by every Christian. It 
 carries us back to the dark ages, when a legacy to the church 
 insured a passport to immortality ; whilst he that withheld was 
 left to die without beneft of clergy, and delivered over to the prince 
 of darkness ! ! 
 
 *< Why," says a writer in an eastern paper, " why is not 
 every farmer hoeing corn for the Education Society ; every rich 
 man writing a large check on the bank; every good house-wife 
 whirling her wheel ; to make money or clothes for those poor 
 young men ; and every eye looking for some poor young man 
 of talents and piety, to set his face towards the ministry with 
 all eagerness ? Awake ! awake ! all people ; arise early ; sit 
 up late, and work hard, and give freely !" 
 
 Numerous pages might be filled with similar appeals to obtain 
 money j but the above furnish abundant evidence to show how 
 
strongly the hopes and expectations of your clergy arc drawn to 
 this quarter. This subject would seem to form the Alpha and 
 Omega of their prayers — the primum mobile of their exertions. 
 No stone is left unturned , every art and method is exhausted 
 to obtain the desired object — even anti-christ himself is put in 
 requisition ; and pride, and vanity, and a love of worldly ho- 
 nour — passions which it is the business of religion to subdue — 
 are excited, and aroused to aid this concern ; and that from a 
 quarter too where it ought to have been the least expected. 
 Thus it is "resolved by your General Assembltj, that any person 
 or persons, not exceeding three, that shall give or bequeath 
 twenty five thousand dollars for the endowment of a pro- 
 fessorship, such professorship shall ever bear the name oj the 
 founder. In like manner any one giving two thousand five 
 hundred dollars for the endowment of a scholarship, the same 
 shall ever bear the name of the donor. Also, any one giving 
 twenty dollars, constitutes him a member of the Education 
 Society for lifey So much for the General Assembly ; and all 
 that is wanting to complete their scheme is, a star, a garter, 
 and a ribbon. 
 
 The papers of the day arc also " spangled over" with the 
 names of contributors, with flattering notices annexed, in order 
 to indiice others to come and do likewise; and thus men, allured 
 by worldly honour — to have their deeds trumpeted abroad, 
 have been induced to put into the «< Lord's treasury,'' to the 
 defrauding of their creditors, and the injury of their destitutefami- 
 lies. And, to cap the climax, the Saviour is represented by the 
 General Jlsscmbly, with his pierced hands stretched forth to receive 
 the filthy lucre I ! He, who thus cautioned his disciples : « I'ake 
 heed that ye do not your alms before men, to he seen of them; 
 otherwise ye have no revi'ard of your Father which is in heaven. 
 Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet 
 before thee, as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues, and in the 
 streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto 
 you, they have their reward, liut when thou doest alms, let 
 not thy left hand know what thy right hand docth." 
 
 Wliat can the ultimate object be that thus stimulates your 
 clergy to such unparalleled exertions ? Ought we to ascribe it to 
 love far the souls of men? Did I suppose that no personal conside- 
 rations ; no secular aims, nor ambitious views, were connected 
 with these proceedings, I would now lay down the pen, under 
 the persuasion that public opinion, and more sober reflection 
 would, in process of time, enlighten and reform your judgments. 
 But any one who has read ecclesiastical history, and thereby 
 become acquainted with the movements and achievements of 
 
IIG 
 
 an educated hireling ministry^ might be permitted, without be- 
 ing accused even of a breach of charity^ to indulge a Tear, that 
 building upon the well-founded maxim, that money creates in- 
 Jluence, and injluence power, the love of an earthly kingdom had 
 found a place in the hearts of the clergy, and mingled with 
 their offerings. I will now proceed to prove that what might 
 very reasonably be feared, is already matter of history ! As full 
 evidence of this fact, I produce the following letters, written 
 by Ignatius Thomson : the last dated Pomfret, (Verm.) Sept. 
 27, 1813, (the author was once connected with the clergy, and 
 thus became apprised of their views.) 
 
 ** The following communication has rested on my mind for 
 years. Between the consciousness of the effect that it would 
 have on me personally, by reason of the great clerical influence 
 in this part of the country, with whom I stood connected, and 
 my sense of duty to the community, I have, till now, refrained 
 from speaking of it, except to some of my friends— the designs 
 of the congregational clergy, have become so alarming to the 
 freedom of religious inquiry, and the liberties of our country, 
 (for they are intimately connected) I cannot feel excused to re- 
 main in silence." The writer proceeds to state, that about the 
 year 1799, hearing much of Thomas Jefferson's infidelity, he 
 called on a member of congress for information. The member 
 told him that he considered Thomas Jefferson a man of correct 
 morals ; but he endeavoured to show him the importance of 
 having a President from the eastern states, who would consult 
 their (the clergy's) interests and defend their rights. ♦< He then 
 addressed himself to me," says the writer, " in sentiments like 
 these, as near as I recollect : *I am surprised you have joined 
 that party ; you are acting against your own interest. It is 
 understood, among the opposite party, if they should succeed so 
 far as to have a decided majority in the states, the clergy are 
 to be remembered. We have conversed on the subject, but have 
 not, as yet, determined whether it would be best to have them 
 draw their salaries from the piiblic chest at the head of govern- 
 ment, or have provision made for them to draw from a deposit in 
 each state. This, \iowe\er, will be Jixed in season. You will 
 then be able to support some dignity of character. You will not 
 be troubled with the whims and complaints of many in your 
 parish. This is generally understood among the clergy.^ I replied, 
 I was afraid of such an establishment : that the persecuting 
 scenes of past ages would return. He observed that we were 
 too enlightened. 
 
 *< Since that time I have observed the conduct of the clergy 
 and could readily understand their motives. I could clear/y 
 
117 
 
 understand Dr. E. in his history of Jerusalem, and Dr. M, 
 in his elegy over the French priests. The prophetic fate of 
 Bibles and meeting houses, depending on the presidential elec- 
 tion, sprang from tiie same source. TJjis led the clergy to enter 
 into a closer connection. Where there was no state connections 
 formed, they were immediately attended to. These conventions 
 meet once a year in each of the states east of the Delaware, 
 and each convention chooses two delegates to represent them 
 in each of the states. They have formed a creeds which they 
 Lave mutually pledged themselves to support. They have con- 
 certed their Magazines, their Missionary labours, their Tract 
 Societies, &c. to establish this creed in the minds of the serious 
 part of the community. They have established a Theohgical 
 College in Massachusetts, devoted to the same object. They 
 have gone so far in this state, (Vermont,) and, as far as I know, 
 it is the same in other states, as to choose a standing committee 
 to grant license or liberty to clergymen, who come intothis state, 
 to preach in their churches. They have agreed to have no fel- 
 lowship with a clergyman, who will not procure sucK a lizense, 
 and have warned the churches against hearing any one, how- 
 ever well he may come recommended, unless he produces such 
 a license. They have exhorted the churches to exconm,unicate 
 as heretics all those who will not assent to their creed: and there 
 are, in a large proportion of the towns (or townships) among 
 us, those who are excommunicated on this principle. 
 
 ** It is the devotion of my heart that this design, like the 
 hypocrite's hope, will eventually prove nothing more than u 
 spider's web. Though I am one of those victims whom their 
 policy has ^\\en over to feel the cftect of their anathemas, I 
 still entertain a hope, that the civil policy of our country will 
 never compel me to apply to a creed-maker to manufacture a 
 set of articles of faith between me and my Redeemer. 
 
 *' Ignatius Tuomson." 
 
 The second letter of I. Thomson, is as follows : 
 
 *' Dear -Sir,— I feel it a duty to communicate to the public, 
 througl) the medium of the Herald, a subject which is of some 
 interest to the friends of civil and religious freedom. 
 
 ** In the spring of the year 1807 or 1808, I attended an asso- 
 ciation of the Congregational clergy, at Thetford in this state. 
 After the members had generally convened, a Mr. Fuller, mi- 
 nister of Vershire, observed to Dr. Burton, < Well, you did not 
 succf'ed in s;etting Mr. Fowjer in a member of the corporation 
 of F'.: , Kc-t'tn.' [This College is patronized by the state, and 
 is known by the name of the University of Vermont.] < No, 
 
118 
 
 replied the Doctor. * Well, what must be done next,' said Mr. 
 Fullrr. The Doctor affected to be at a loss for an answer. Mr. 
 Wmster, another member of the corporation, replied with some 
 feeling, * We must withdraw our support from that college, and 
 turtt it to Middlebury,' [another college in the stale, under the 
 pationage of individuals.] The Doctor then began, ' We must 
 turn our inlluence to Middlebury, and I think we can easily 
 run (down the University. When the corporation are convinced 
 thatlthey cannot support the reputation of the college, without 
 tlie ^alvinistic hijiuencef they will be willing to give up Dr. 
 Sanders, [the president] then we can manage that college as 
 we please. It will be of great importance to have it under the 
 Calvlnistic influence. To do this^ we must cry down the col- 
 lege {\nd Br. Sanders. We must make the people believef that the 
 reason whj the college does not fiourishy is because Dr. Sanders is 
 So unpopular. The Calvinistic sentiments never will prevail, till 
 the cftlleges are under our influence. Young men, when they go 
 to college, generally, have not formed their religious senti- 
 ments. We ought to have a president and instructors, who 
 have the address to instill the Calvinistic sentiments without 
 the students being sensible of it. Then, nine out of ten, when 
 they leare the college, will support the Calvinistic doctrine.-— 
 They will go out into the world, and will have ihe^\r influence in 
 societij. In this way we can get a better support without any 
 law than we have ever had with. And besides, when all our 
 colleges are under our injluence, it will establish our sentiments 
 and influence, so that we can manage the civil government as we 
 please.' 
 
 " He then began to name the colleges, and found them all 
 under the Calvinistic influence, this side the Delaware, (a river 
 peculiariy distinguished in certain men's calculations) * except 
 Brown tfniversiiij, Harvard University^ and the University of 
 Vermont Brown University may be considered as much for 
 us as aoainst us. We have a Divinity College at Andover, 
 which nas a great influence over Harvard College, and we 
 think it Will soon bring it over to our interCvSt; and we must 
 exert oureelvcs to obtain this.^ These are the sentiments, and 
 as nearly the words as [ can recollect. 
 
 " In the year 1809, I was chosen a member of the general 
 assembly of this state. I then felt it a duty to prevent the 
 designs of the clergy, if possible. Accordingly, I brought in a 
 bill to amend the act of establishing the University of Vermont 
 at Burlington. The principal object was to take the right of 
 filling vacancies in the corporation, into the hands of the legis- 
 lature, by a joint ballot of both houses. This, I considered, 
 
119 
 
 would always make the colleges popular, notwitlistanding cle- 
 rical designs. The cry of an unpopular president has been 
 continually sounded ; and, from some unexpected movement, a 
 majority of the corporation have so far been charmed with the 
 clerical song of an unpopular president, that they have pro- 
 posed to meet at Montpelier during the session of the legisla- 
 ture, and take into consideration the expediency of removing 
 Doctor Sanders from the presidency. 
 
 «' I understand the malcontents have their eye fixed on a 
 Dr. Blanchford, of Lansingburgh, New York, as one who is ca- 
 pable of instilling Calvinistic sentiments, without the students 
 being sensible of it. The heart is deceitful above all things, and 
 desperately wicked j who can know it? 
 
 " Ignatius Thomson. 
 « Pom/ret, ( Ter.) Sept. 27 y 1813." 
 
 The first letter of I. Thomson proves the fact, that the Pres- 
 byterian clergy in New England, were plotting to establish 
 their creed throughout the u)iion ; to have all other sects taxed 
 to support their aggrandizement, and thus give the death-blow 
 to civil and religious liberty in this country. Towards the 
 close of Adams' administration, their plans were nearly ma- 
 tured. But they saw that if Thomas Jefferson was elected to the 
 presidential chair, a total defeat would follow. '* From every 
 pulpit in the land," therefore, the trumpet sounded long and 
 loud. He was denounced as an atheist, a deist,— an enemy to 
 all religion! But all this would not do; republicanism tri- 
 umphed ; the man of the people was elected ; our liberties were, 
 once more, secured ; and the golden dreams of a venal clergy 
 dissolved into empty air, <* without a wreck behind !" 
 
 The New England clergy have stoutly denied this charge ; 
 but in vain. The testimony of I. Thomson docs not staiiil 
 alone. It is sustained 61/ a cloud of witnesses^ from which I will 
 select tlie following, for the satisfaction of the doubting reader : 
 
 Dr. Lyman, of Hatfield, (Mass.) in a sermon preached Nov. 
 4th, 1804, the day preceding the choice of electors for President 
 and rice-President, said, <* The civil, no less than the ecclesi- 
 astical powers among the nations, are to stand by the Lord of 
 the whole earth ; and they must unite and combine their labours, 
 and be fellow-helpers for the good and happiness of the church." 
 « Those who would dissolve the connection between civil rulers, 
 and religious teachers, and destroy the influence which they 
 have in that connection, are putting asunder what God has 
 joined. God has joined together Moses and Aaron ; Zerubba- 
 bel and Joshua, Christian rulers and Christian teachers : and 
 
1^0 
 
 he never had a church at, peace and in prosperity, where lead- 
 ers in civil life and teachers of religion, did not, in some good 
 degree, unite their counsels and operations." *« The church 
 cannot be at rest andinpeace, unless civil magistrates become 
 the NURSING FATHERS of the church.** 
 
 Now this political sermonizing was on the eve of a presiden- 
 tial election; and the language is — "Choose thou unto thee 
 Zeruhhahel ; one who will be 2k^Jelloxv -helper, a nursing father to 
 our church — one who will unite his " counsels and operations" 
 with our teachers. 
 
 The same sentiments are found in the late Timothy Dwight's 
 <^« Travels, in New England and New York," published in four 
 volumes octavo. Speaking of the state of religion in Rhode 
 Island, this author remarks that, "farmers and mechanics push 
 themselves into the desk for two reasons, to avoid labour^ and 
 to display their gifts, or, in other words, from sloth and spiritual 
 pride." « Ministers have to depend on roiM^ifarr/ contribution. 
 This evil is radical and can never be remedied but by the inter- 
 position or GOVERNMENT." Vol. iii. p. 66. 
 
 Similar complaints are made hy this writer, with respect to 
 New York : — " At the best," says he, " the minister will hold 
 his living on a tenure absolutely precarious, and this, of itself, 
 will discourage men, qualijiedfor the office^from entering on if."f 
 
 In another place, the same author tells us, that a variety of 
 different sects in the same community, destroys or weakens the 
 influence of religion; and that its full effects on society are 
 only to he looked for where there is but one kind, &c., or words 
 to thiit amount. Here, then, we have church and state, and 
 homogeneous influence over again ! 
 
 Having been foiled in their expectations of getting their 
 liands into *' the public chest," by the election of Thomas Jef- 
 ferson, the " enterprising ministers" of New England, are 
 endeavouring to acccmplish the same object by other means, as 
 set forth in the second letter of I. Thomson, <' Zerubbabel and 
 
 * These remarks come with a very bad grace from this quarter, whilst we 
 see so many "pious young' men," forsaking' their mechanical aud agricultural 
 pursuits, to go into colleges and seminaries, and lead a life of idleness and ease 
 on the public funds. 
 
 ■\ The author, it seems, is well aware of the mercenary character of his 
 brethren, and that they will not enter on their pastoral duties without A full 
 certainty of being well paid for it. Now, tiiese are precisely the kind of mi- 
 nisters whom the Apostles Paul and Peter would have rejected as not qualified 
 for the station : " A bishop must not be greedy of Jlltht/ lucre** 1 Tim. iii. 3. 
 '• A bishop must not be given to Jilthy lucre." Tit. 1, 7. — "Feed the flock of 
 Hod which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but 
 ■mUinghj ,- not for filthy Inert, but of a ready mi?id." 1 Pet. t. 2, 
 
JoShua" are now to be *< joined together," by creating a liostof 
 •< fellow-helpers," and " nursing fathers" through the medium of 
 colleges and theological seminaries. Every college that is not un- 
 der Calvinistic influence is to be ** cryed down" and Presidents 
 appointed in each college who shall " have the address to instil 
 the Calvinistic sentiments y without the students being sensible of 
 it !" " They will go out into the world, and will have their 
 influence in society. In this way we can get a better support 
 without any law than we have ever had with. And be^des, 
 when all otir colleges are under our influence, it will establish 
 our sentiments and iiifluencey so that we can manage the civil 
 government as we please !" 
 
 Here we are furnished with a clue, by which to discern the 
 reason, why those missionaries, sent out by the Presbyterian 
 board, to ascertain the wants of our " thirsty land," excluded, 
 in their estimate, ministers who were not under Calvinistic in- 
 fluence. We now perceive the full force of Lyman Beecher's 
 remarks, when he says ; ** There is a state of society to be 
 formed by an extensive combination of institutions, religious, 
 civil and literary, which never can exist without the co-opera- 
 tion of an educated ministry. The integrity of the union de- 
 mands special exertions to produce in the nation a more homo- 
 geneous character, and bind us together by firmer bonds. A 
 remedy must be applied to this vital defect of our national 
 organization." " But what sliall that remedy be ? There can 
 be but one. The prevalence of pious, intelligent, enterprising 
 ministers throughout the nation, at the ratio of one for every 
 thousand, would establisli schools, and academies, and colleges, 
 and habits, and institutions of homogeneous influence." 
 
 Such then are tiie ambitious aims of an educated Presbyterian 
 ministry. The great exertions making to extend the Calvinis- 
 tic sentiments — to furnish us witli an enterprising minister for 
 every thousand souls — to establish a homogeneous influence ; 
 and the defect so much complained of in our national organiaa- 
 tiouy cannot now be misunderstood — and deserve the serious 
 attention of every friend to civil and religious liberty ! 
 
 1 am not conscious of a disposition either to magnify things 
 in their nature of small moment, or to indulge groundless ap- 
 prehensions. Whilst the influence of men of ignoble minds and 
 rancorous spirits, is confined by public sentiment, within that 
 narrow limit which conimori sense dravTS aronnil it — although 
 such men may, like the insect they resemble, eject their venom, 
 and spin their web, they are objects of pity rather than of fear. 
 But when to these qualities, are added an ambitious seeking 
 after wealth and power; with natural talents -, and all adroitly 
 
covered with a sanctimonious garb ; — it is then that they become 
 objects of fear ; just causes of alarm to the community. 
 
 It is a safe position, and one, the truth of which is supported 
 by evidence little short of demonstration, that power is no where 
 more dangerous to the best interests of civil society, than in the 
 hands of a hireling priesthood : that, although tlie religion of 
 Jesus Christ raises the expectations of its votaries far above 
 sublunary things, and dissevers their connection from everjf 
 worlflly interest ; yet such has been the abuse of it, that it is 
 from the grovelling ambition of those who profess to teach it to 
 others, that the civil and religious liberties of mankind have 
 received the most fatal wounds ! ! And whilst men shall choose 
 to *< heap to themselves" such teachers, their liberties will be 
 no longer safe, than whilst a kind of balance of power is main- 
 tained by their division into a number of different sects ; and 
 thus the following line of Pope is as applicable to the religmis., 
 as to the physical world : 
 
 "All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace." 
 
 The truth of these remarks is exemplified in the temper and 
 conduct of the Presbyterian clergy. Confiding in their num- 
 berSf already do they begin to threaten our *' civil rulers," 
 with the coercive influence of their fifteen hundred ministers ; 
 and to «cry down" those who are not, as yet, disposed to be- 
 come « the nursing fathers of the church ! !" Already is heard 
 the clerical cry of atheist, deist, heretic, against those who 
 oppose their sectarian schemes and ambitious designs ! Now 
 when the cloven foot of intolerance is thus put forth, even in 
 open day — when more than a speck of war already appears in 
 the Calvinistic horizon, and Ihunderings even now assail our 
 ears, what may not honest dissenters justly apprehend, should 
 Lyman Beecher's ^'liomogeneous influence" prevail, and there 
 be set over them an ** enterprising" minister for every thou- 
 sand ? 
 
 Now, for all those evils in the religioiis world, where shall we 
 find a remedy ? " There can be but one ;" and that is to place 
 the gospel on its orginal ground : to have a disinterested minis- 
 try^ called of God, and preaching it without money and without 
 price. In the church the love of money has, truly, been *« the 
 root of all evil :" the Pandora's box from whence have spread 
 all the evils which Christendom has suffered. History testifies 
 to the truth of this; and your own case furnishes a recent evi- 
 dence, that human nature, in the corvl, and girded with the 
 linen Ephod, is far from being proof against the deceitfulnessof 
 richeSj and the allurements of power ! Such then, are the bitter 
 
truits which have ever been produced by an educated, hireling 
 ministry. Now that which hath let, will continue to let until it 
 be taken out of the way ; and I assume it as a position that can- 
 not be shaken, that the righteousness of Zion will never " go 
 forth as brightness, nor the salvation thereof as a lamp that 
 hiirneth," tuitilthe honours and emoluments of a seducing^ deceit- 
 ful ivorld, are wholly separatedfrom the office of her functionaries. 
 But we arc triumphantly met with the truism, that <* preachers 
 cannot live on air !" This leads me to expose another strange 
 discrepancy that maintains between your doctrine and your 
 practice : " There is not a fly," says a Calvinistic writer, 
 *« but has had infinite wisdom concerned, not only in its struc- 
 ture, but in its destination^ And again — " Nor did Bishop 
 Hopkins," says Toplady, (a champion for orthodoxy,) " go a 
 jot too far in asserting as follows : * A sparrow, wliose price is 
 but mean, and whose life, therefore, is but contemptible, and 
 whose flight seems giddy and at random ; jetit falls not to the 
 ground, neither lights any where, without your Father. His 
 all-wise Providence hath before appointed what bough it shall 
 pitch on ; what grains it shall pick up ; where it shall lodge, and 
 . where it shall build ; on what it shall live, and when it shall die."* 
 Yet they that hold this doctrine, are afraid that this same 
 Providence will let them starve, and even whilst they are 
 labouring in his vineyard ! ! Truly, your ministers have great 
 reason to pray for an increase, not of their faith only, but also 
 of their consistency ! 
 
 The practice of the Apostles and primitive Christians in 
 ancient, and that of the Quakers and others in modern times, 
 evidences the possibility of preaching the gospel without charge. 
 What was Paul's experience? " Ye received me," said he to 
 tlic Galatians, « as an angel of God, for if it had been possible, 
 ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given 
 them to me." 
 
 But let it be granted that modern Christendom would be 
 less kind, less hospitable to those whose feet are shod with 
 the preparation of the gospel of our Lord, than the Gentile 
 nations were in the days of Paul. Let it be supposed, if 
 possible, that in a country where the necessaries of life are 
 found in such profusion, as to be a source of complaint, that 
 your clergy might on some occasions find it difficult to pro- 
 cure food enough to satisfy the wants of nature : still this 
 very circumstance should tend rather to increase their faith, 
 by leading to a comparison between their own situations and 
 that of their Divine Master and his disciples ! He had not 
 where to lay his head : barley bread and fish were the usual 
 
fare of him and his followers ; and on some occasions they were 
 even fain to eat the raw grain in the fields to appease their 
 hunger ! But should other resources fail, have not your clergy 
 hands ? The Apostles, when occasionally released from their 
 master's service, laboured — " Yea, you yourselves know," said 
 Paul, «* that these hands have ministered to my necessities, 
 and to them that were with me.'' Are your clergy better than 
 Paul ? Or have they forgoUen tlie first letter of the Christian 
 minister's alphabet: ♦«! have covetted no man's silver or gold, 
 or apparel — but having food and raiment, I have learnt to be 
 content.'* 
 
 Now what an impression would be made on the world, by the 
 restoration of the primitive gospel, and primitive simplicity ! 
 The cry of priest-craft would cease; the mouths of gainsayers 
 "would be stopt; all pride, vanity, and secular aims, would cease 
 to exist; the buyers and sellers would be driven from the tem- 
 ple ; — no more reverends, nor right reverends — no more pa- 
 laces, nor extravagant display in the buildings devoted to the 
 worship of God — no more Theological Seminaries — no more 
 cry of give, give ! — " Great gulfs" fix^d between religious sects 
 by envy, by malice, or by ambition, would be obliterated ; and « 
 all the labourers in the Lord's vineyard, would put "shoulder 
 to shoulder," as in Apostolic times, and be united " as the heart 
 of one man" in winning souls to God ! 
 
 Now what a sad reverse is presented by your present sys- 
 tem ! Souls perishirjg for lack of knowledge ; for the want of 
 money to make ministers, and then, the want of money to pay 
 them ! Meeting houses almost wholly deserted, and the worship 
 of God suspended for want of money ! Preaching, or as you 
 believe, salvation withheld for lack of a little filthy lucre to 
 purchase it ! ! 
 
 Well did the Apostle speak, when, foreseeing the conse- 
 quences of making a trade of his blessed master's unspeakable 
 gift, he indignantly replied to Simon Magus, "thy money 
 perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of 
 God may be purchased with money." 
 
 What then has the Christian woild to hope from a diffusion 
 of yonr " homogeneous influence ;" from having an " educated 
 minister to every thousand," after the model of Europe ? Alas ! 
 where sliall we find the so much talked of *« moral and religious 
 influence'' excited by an educated ministry, when we cast our 
 eyes over Euiope ? Behold the oceans of human blood shed in 
 her wars — the miseries and oppression of her people ! But take 
 a wider view. What has an educated ministry done for the 
 M'orld ! Have we seen angels in the shape of educated minis- 
 
125 
 
 ters, governing her spiritual concerns ? " Let liistory answer 
 this question." What sayeth it? Wherever an educated mi- 
 nistry have become numerous, and obtained power, the kind of 
 moral influence excited by them has tended to produce strife 
 and persecution, and oppression, and bloodshed ! — But here we 
 are met by one of your professors of theology, Dr. Miller, with 
 the fi>irowing appeal : 
 
 " Now I appeal,'' says the professor, " to all impartial 
 readers, who have the least knowledge of ecclesiastical history^ 
 whether those who have embraced the general system of Chris- 
 tian doctrine, designated by the name o( Calvinism, have not 
 been in all ages, distinguished as * the stricter sort* of professing 
 Christians ? Have they not always been reproached by the 
 laxer classes as * austere, puritanical,' and enemies of many 
 * innocent indulgencies ?*'* 
 
 Of all crimes, those committed under the name and pretext 
 of religion, are most to be deprecated. Of all attacks upon 
 religious communities, those made in the name of JesuJi, *'with 
 much prayer, and seeking after duty,*' whilst the writer is nerved 
 with unholy passions, and falsehood and calumny teem from 
 his pen, are most to be detested. In the foregoing pages I 
 have traced and developed the secular aims, inconsistencies, 
 and plottings of a venal clergy, because I believed that the 
 present statQ of society and the cause of truth demanded it. I 
 am now to revive and bring into public view, past occurrences, 
 which, without strong reasons, should have rested for ever in 
 the tomb of oblivion. But after attempts on the part of your 
 clergy to establish Calvinism as the national religion in this 
 country, by making our civil magistrates the ** nursing fathers 
 of the church :" — after showing that having /aiUed in it, they 
 are still aiming at the same thing, by instilling through the me- 
 dium of schools and colleges, the Calvinistic sentiments, "with- 
 out the students being sensible of it," and so to diffuse 2Lndestab- 
 /is/i their ** sentiments and influence," that they may <* manage 
 the civil government as they please ;" and after such a formal, 
 confident appeal to history for evidence of the pre-eminence of 
 the Calvinistic, over all other Christian professors, for piety 
 and virtue, the « impartial reader" will excuse me for pre- 
 senting before the public an outline of what history furnishes, 
 of the practical operation of Calvinism, in all cases where »* civil 
 magistrates," have been its « fellow helpers and nursing 
 fathers." 
 
 *I commence wiih Calvin, justly considered the father and 
 
 * The summary account here g-iven of Calvinistic persecution, &c. is taken 
 from Mosh. Eccl. History, vol. iv. — Monthly Repos. voi, i, and v. — Neal's History 
 
126 
 
 ibiinder of the sect; the first professor of Christianity who em-= 
 bodied the tenets of Fatalism, and exhibited its deformities to 
 the world. 
 
 This reformer cherished, as a leading article of his faith, the 
 detesatble principle introduced in the fourth century, that er- 
 rors in religion are punishable with civil penalties aiid corporeal 
 tortures ; and he no sooner saw himself at the head of a new 
 sect, and tlie civil magistrates enlisted as its •< nursing fathers," 
 tljan he, with his followers, began to put it into effectual opera- 
 tion against all dissenters from the Calvinistic faith. Amongst 
 the number of those who felt the turbulence of the reformer's 
 passions, and the malignity of his unhallowed zeal, were Bolsec 
 and Castalio. These men, the first a man of probity and much 
 esteemed, he caused to be banished, because they had the inde- 
 pendence to maintain opinions different from his own. But the 
 foulest blot on Calvin's memory is his treatment of Servetus. 
 Calvin endeavoured to prevail on Servetus to adopt his creed, 
 but without success ; and the latter perceiving the storm that 
 was gathering around him, retired from Geneva. But after- 
 wards, in passing within Calvin's jurisdiction, he had him kid- 
 napped, set up the cry of heresy against him : and bringing for- 
 ward one of his servants to prove the charge, together with some 
 confidential letters of the prisoner, had him convicted and burnt 
 at the stake. Calvin had, for a length of time, premeditated the 
 destruction of his resolute opponent, as fully appears from 
 a letter he wrote to a friend, in which he said, that " if 
 this heretic should fall into his hands, he would order it so, that 
 it should cost him his life ,•" and when the deed was done, he 
 boasted of having exterminated Servetus the Spaniard." 
 
 The same intemperate zeal which fired the breast of Calvin, 
 shortly afterwards made its appearance in Holland, where the 
 Calvinists were the strojigest sect. It brought to the block the 
 gray hairs of Oldenbarnevelt, and imprisoned the famous Grotius 
 for life. The Armenians, who asked no more than a bare tole- 
 ration for their opinions, were treated as heretics by the Cal- 
 vinistic Synod of Dort, because they could not subscribe to their 
 doctrine on the^re points* — denied the privilege of explaining 
 their sentiments — tried as criminals, and condemned. The civil 
 magistrates in this case, (as that of Servetus and others,) were 
 the "nursing fathers" of the church; and the consequence, was, 
 
 of the Puritans, vol. iii. — Russel's Mod. Eur. vol. iii. — N. Am. Review, vol. 
 vi. — Wright's History of Persecution — Sewell's History — Basse's Sufferings of 
 the Quakers, vol. ii. and iii. — te which 1 refer the reader. 
 
 ♦ The five points are, Election, Redenxption, Original §in. Effectual Grace, 
 and Perseverance. 
 
1S7 
 
 that the religious meetings of the Armenians were suppressed, 
 their preachers silenced, many imprisoned, and others separated 
 from their families, and driven into eXile. 
 
 In England, at the period of the civil commotions, the disor- 
 ganization of the government, with the violent effervescence 
 which took place, both in church and state, brought forth Cal- 
 vinism from its lurking place,* and gave it a temporary ascen- 
 dancy. The Presbyterian parliament established the use of the 
 Directory by law, and prohibited that of the Common Prayer- 
 Book. For using the latter, either in churches, private places, 
 or families, a line of five ])ounds was imposed for the first 
 offence, ten pounds for the second, and one year's imprison- 
 ment for the third. Ministers not observing the law, were fined 
 forty shillings; and any one who should preach or publish 
 against the Dirtctory, from five pounds to fifty pounds. Such 
 were the first steps of the Presbyterians in England towards 
 uniformity. 
 
 The Presbyterian writers of this time represented toleration 
 as " contrary to godliness — opening a door to libertinism and 
 profaneness, and a tenet to be rejected SiS foul poison .'" "It is 
 putting," said they, *< the sword into the hands of a madman, and 
 appointing a city of refuge for the devil to fly to" — the nourisher 
 of all heresies and schisms; and to let men serve God according 
 to the persuasion of their own consciences, was to ** cast out one 
 devil that seven more may enter.''' 
 
 In treating with their dethroned king, when a prisoner in 
 the Isle of Wight, the Presbyterians required the entire anni- 
 hilation of Episcopacy, and the establishment of Presbyterian- 
 ism as the national religion, without the least provision for 
 liberty of conscience. They even required that the king should 
 consent to discard the use of the Common Prayer Book in his 
 own private family I In short, to use the words of Macauly, "the 
 utter extinction of Episcopacy, and their setting up their own 
 idol in its stead, was the superior consideration for which it is 
 plain the Presbyterians had entered into the hazard of war." 
 The parliament "being recruited with such Presbyterian 
 members as had absconded or deserted their stations, in imita- 
 tation of their Genevan master, proceeded to remove the 
 veil, and to exhibit to the world the idol of their faith in all 
 its native deformity, by passing the following ordinance, dated 
 
 ♦The first Presbyterian cTiurch was established in England, in 1572, in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth. The commissioners to put the act of uniformity in 
 practice, went in search of these " heretics," but the members of the Pres- 
 bytery kept themselves so well secreted that they could not be discovered, Neal, 
 vol. i. 314, 
 
±28 
 
 May 2(1, 164S. " All persons who shall willingly mainfain? 
 publisli, or defend, by preaching or writing, the following he- 
 resies with obstinacy, shall upon complaint, and proof, by the 
 oaths of two witnesses, before two justices of the peace, or con- 
 fession of the party, be committed to prison without bail, or 
 mainpriscj till the next gaol delivery ; and in case the indict- 
 ment shall then be found, and tlie party upon his trial shall not 
 abjure his said error, he shall suffer the pains of death -without 
 benejit of clergy,^' — '*The heresies, or errors are those following: 
 
 « 1. That there is no God. 2. That God is not omnipresent, 
 omniscient, almighty, eternal, and perfectly holy. 3. That the 
 Father is not God, that the Son is not God, that the Holy Ghost 
 is not God, or that these three are not one eternal God ; or, that 
 Christ is not God equal witli the Father. 4. The denial of the 
 manhood of Christ, or that the Godhead and Manhood are dis- 
 tinct natures ; or, that the humanity of Christ is pure and 
 unspotted of all sin. 5. The maintaining that Christ did not 
 die, nor rise again, nor ascend into heaven bodily. 6. The 
 denying that the death of Christ is meritorious on the behalf of 
 believeis ; or, that Jesas Christ is the Son of God. 7. The 
 denying that the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament 
 are the word of God. 8. The denying of the resurrection of 
 the dead, and a future judgment." 
 
 The ordinance proceeds to specify some other errors, for 
 which the party " shall he committed to prison, till he find 
 sureties that he shall not publish or maintain the said error or 
 eiTors any more." " The errors are those following :" 
 
 <• 1. That all men shall be saved. 2. That man by nature 
 hath free xvill to turn to God. 3. That God may be worshipped 
 in, or by pictures or images. 4. That the soul dies with the 
 body, or after death goes neither to heaven nor hell, but to 
 purgatory. 5. That the soul of man sleeps when the body is 
 dead. 6. That the revelations or workings of the spirit, are a 
 rule of faith, or Christian life, though diverse from, or contrary 
 to the written word of God. 7. That a man is bound to believe 
 no more than by his reason he can comprehend. 8. That the moral 
 law contained in the ten commandments is no rule of the Chris- 
 tian life. 9. That a believer need not repent, or pray for par- 
 don of sin. 10. That the two sacraments of baptism and the 
 Lord's supper, are not ordinances commanded by the word 
 of God. 11. That the baptism of infants is unlawful^ and void, 
 and that such persons ought to be baptised again. 12. That the 
 observation of the Lord's day, as enjoined by the laws and ordi- 
 nances of this realm, is not according, or is contrary to the word 
 of God. 13. That it is not lawful to join in public or family 
 
prayer, or to teach children to pray. 14. That the, churches of 
 England are no true churches, nor their ministers and ordinances 
 true ministers and ordinances ; or that the church governmenthy 
 Presbytery is antichristian or unlawful. 16. That magistracy, 
 or the power of the civil magistrate, by law established in 
 England, is unlawful. 16. That all use of arms, though for the 
 public defence (and be the cause never so just) is unlawful." 
 
 This law, besides the severity of its penalties, allowed 
 neither the privilege of a jury, nor the liberty of an appeal. " This 
 was one of the most shocking laws," says Neal, " I have 
 met with, and shows that the governing Presbyterians would 
 have made a terrible use of their power, had they been sup- 
 ported by the sword of the civil magistrate." <*The ordinance 
 was a comprehensive engine of cruelty, and would have tor- 
 tured great numbers of good Ciiristians and good subjects." 
 
 Language is inadequate to express the indignation which 
 every true Christian must feel at such proceedings ; and hu- 
 manity shrinks from the contemplation of the horrid scenes 
 which would have ensued, had not the civil magistrates, (those 
 <« illiterate heads," whom Lyman Beecher informs us are not 
 to be « entrusted with religion") defended the people from the 
 violence of the Presbyterian clergy. Happily about this period, 
 (the king's power being no longer dreaded,) the Calvinists 
 began to quarrel among themselves, and a party separated from 
 the original stock, denominated Independents, who professing a 
 greater degree of moderation than their brethren, soon became 
 popular, and getting possession of the sword, through the medium 
 of the '* self demjing ordinance,'^ put down their opponents ; and 
 the army which now became the ruling power, was so favoura- 
 ble to toleration, that the above law against heretics was never 
 enforced — a law which would have planted gibbets all over 
 England, filled her prisons, and in short, produced scenes 
 which would have rivalled the day of St. Bartholomew, or the 
 Oicilian vespers. 
 
 But although Calvinism was thus disappointed of its prey in 
 England, it took ample vengeance on dissenters both in Ire- 
 land and in Scotland. The soldiers of Cromwell, although, in 
 imitation of their commander, they spent much time in fast- 
 ing, in singing Psalms, and in prayer and seeking the Lord, 
 made a dreadful slaughter of the garrisons of Wexford and 
 Drogheda, butchering tliem in cold blood, even after they had 
 submitted to the law of the conqderor. In like manner, the 
 Presbyterians in Scotland, having ^defeated the royal army, 
 butchered their prisoners in cold b^ood. « The clergy " says 
 Russel, " incited the civil power to Hiis severity, and even soli- 
 
 u 
 
130 
 
 ^ited that more blood might he spilt on the scaffold ! The pulpit 
 thundered against all who did the work of the Lord deceitfulltj. 
 < Thine eye shall not pity !' and ' thou shall not spare !' were 
 maxims frequently inculcated after every execution." Vol. ill, 
 p. 352c 
 
 Leaving this theatre of blood and bigotry, I invite the reader's 
 attention to New England, whither the Presbyterians fled from 
 persecution at home, inflicted by an " educated ministry" in 
 th« shape of Episcopacy. Having felt the smart of ecclesi- 
 astical tyranny, it was to have been expected that these 
 «' pilgrims" would have sympathised with others in a like con- 
 dition, agreeably to the sentiment of a heathen author : 
 
 *• Non ignara mali, miseiis succurrere disco." 
 
 But bigotry has no bowels of mercy. The first Baptists that 
 came among these people " were treated with great severity, 
 and punished in various ways for their heresies." But the 
 main force of their persecuting propensities was exerted 
 against the Quakers, whom they styled " a cursed sect of 
 heretics," " The Quakers," says Belknap, " were, at first, 
 banished, but this proving insufficient, a succession of sangui- 
 nary laws was enacted against them, of which imprisonment, 
 whipping, cutting off" the ears, boring the tongue with a hot 
 iron, and banishment on pain of death, were the terrible sanc- 
 tions." History oj JVew-Hampshire, vol. i. p. 90. 
 
 In Massachusetts, the first law against the Quakers is dated 
 Boston, October 14, 1656. This law enacts, that a fine of one 
 hundred pounds shall be imposed on any master of a vessel who 
 shall bring a Quaker into the state — that any Quaker coming 
 there shall be severely whipped, kept at hard labour, until sent 
 away at his own charges, and no one be permitted to see or 
 speak to him — that any one importing any of their books, or 
 having said books in his house, shall pay forty sliillings for the 
 first offence, four pounds for the second, and suffer banishment 
 for the third — and that any person reviling the magistrates 
 or ministers, shall be severely whipt, or pay the sum of five 
 pounds. 
 
 Another law passed October 14th, 1657, enacts, that any per- 
 son who shall entertain, or conceal a Quaker, sliall forfeit and 
 pay forty shillings for every hour's such entertainment or con- 
 cealment, and the party be committed to prison till paid — that any 
 male Quaker returning after suffering what the law required, 
 shall lose one ear for the first offence, and be kept at hard la- 
 bour until sent away ; and the other ear for the second offence ; 
 that every woman so offending shall be severely whipped and 
 
131 
 
 sent to the house of correction — that for a third offence as above, 
 he or she shall have their tongues bored through with a hot 
 iron ; and linally that all Quakers arising among themselves, 
 shall be dealt with in the same manner. 
 
 On the 20th of May, 1658, another law was passed against 
 domestic Quakers, enacting that any one professing their per- 
 nicious ways, by speaking, writing or meeting together for 
 worship, each one, so offending to pay ten shillings j and for 
 preaching, five pounds, and to be kept at labour until sent 
 away. 
 
 In the same year, viz. the 20th October, another law was 
 passed, ordaining, that any person being convicted to be of the 
 sect of Quakers (no overt act specified) shall be banished on pain 
 of death — that any one defending them, or their writings, or 
 withdrawing from the established worship, and frequenting 
 meetings of their own ; or condemning the proceedings of the 
 court, shall be imprisoned one month 5 and if the party persist, 
 banished on pain of death. 
 
 The foregoing laws, although aimed against the Quaker?, 
 includes other blasphemous heretics; and any constable was 
 empowered, without warrant, to proceed in the execution of the 
 said laws ; and the magistrates to commit to prison, at theii» 
 discretion, and without bail. 
 
 These are not the only, nor the first laws that were framed 
 by the Presbyterians in New England against dissenters. As 
 early as the year 1638, this work was begun. In that year it 
 was enacted that every person should pay the priest, and also that 
 *« wheever shall stand excommunicated for six months, without 
 labouring what in him or her.lyeth to be restored, such person 
 shall be prpsented to the court of assistants, and there pro- 
 ceeded v/ith by fine, imprisonment or banishment, as their con- 
 tempt, or obstinacy, upon full hearing shall deserve." 
 
 One of the first victims to this ordinance was a Baptist, wltOj^ 
 upon his refusal to have his infant baptised, was complained of 
 to the court, by whose order he was tied up and whipped. 
 
 The laws, the heads of which I have recited above, were not 
 suffered to remain a dead letter. The civil magistrates in 
 New England were « fellow-helpers" — " nursing fathers of the 
 church ;" and the consequence was, a series of cruelties, to 
 which the annals of Romish persecution scarcely affords a paral- 
 lel ! Many were severely whipped, imprisoned, and banished, 
 without offending either in word or deed; the plain language 
 and dress, were sufficient reasons for subjecting individuals to 
 the most acute suffering. Delicate females were stripped to the 
 waist, tied to a cart's tail, and whipped through the different 
 
13^ 
 
 towns to the end of the jurisdiction. Men were taken from 
 their homes, whilst engaged in their lawful pursuits, and with- 
 out any assignable cause, imprisoned, whipped, and banished ; 
 their goods seized and sold, and their helpless families left 
 unprotected and in want j and if any questioned the propriety 
 or legality of these enormities, although of their own members, 
 they were also subjected to similar penalties. 
 
 Amongst the many cases of refined barbarity, the following 
 stands pre-eminent : the heads of a certain family had been 
 thrown into prison, and their property seized and sold. Two 
 of their children, a son and daughter, remained at home, and 
 absenting themselves from the public worship^ they were fined 
 ten pounds, as the law required. But, there being nothing left 
 to pay ^he fine, the courts of Salem and Ipswich, authorised 
 the treasurers of the counties to transport these children to 
 Virginia or Barbadoes, and sell them as slaves ! ! !* The order 
 was not executed, because no captain could be found so desti- 
 tute of feeling, as to receive them on board. 
 
 After making an ample trial of whipping, cropping, branding, 
 confiscation of goods, starvation, and banishment, and finding 
 that all these engines of cruelty were but as a feather in the 
 scale, when opposed to the weight of religious obligation, these 
 persecutors resolved to proceed to extremities, and to try the 
 effect of hanging. Already had four of their victims suffered 
 martyrdom on a gibbet ; several more were under sentence of 
 death, and many lay in prison awaiting their trial, when an 
 order arrived from the court of St. James, dated the 9th of 
 September, 1661, to stop all proceedings against the Quakers 
 in New England, and to send home such as were or should be 
 charged with crime, to be tried by the laws of the m,other coun- 
 try : and thus was that very government from under which the 
 Presbyterians had fled to avoid a cruel persecution, compelled 
 to interpose its authority to arrest a persecution on the part of 
 these, still more cruel ! ! 
 
 Although this order put a stop to further executions, yet 
 whipping, banishing, &c. continued for several years after- 
 wards. As one Instance out of many others, I will give the 
 following : 
 
 <« To the Constables of Dover^ Hampton, Salisbury, JVewbury, 
 Rowley, Ipswich, Wenham, Linn, Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, 
 and until these vagabond Quakers are carried out of this juris- 
 diction : 
 
 « You and every of you are required in the King's Majesty's 
 name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anne Coleman, Mary 
 
 • See Besse's Sufferings, London edition, quarto, vol. ii. p. 197. 
 
133 
 
 Tomkins, and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart's? 
 tail, and driving the cart through your several towns, to whip 
 them on their backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each 
 of them, in each town, and so to convey them from constable to 
 constable, till they come out of this jurisdiction, as you will 
 answer it at your peril; and this shall be your warrant. 
 
 " Per me, Richard Walden. 
 «.5< Dover, dated December 22, 1663." 
 
 This order was cruelly executed through the first three 
 towns. But the fourth constable believing that these delicate 
 women, having already received thirty stripes each, must die 
 on their hands, before the remaining seventy stripes could be 
 inflicted, run the hazard of breaking the law, and released them. 
 
 Through the whole of this, as in every other persecution, the 
 priests and elders were the most active persons on the stage ; 
 stirring up the magistracy and the people .in the performance 
 of their duhj, and thundering from the pulpit, against all who 
 did the work of the Lord deceitfully I 
 
 I here close this brief account of persecution by the Calvin- 
 ists. On Dr. Miller's appeal no further comment is necessary. 
 Enough has been said to prove, that in all cases where the 
 Calvinists have been the strongest sect, and had the civil ma- 
 gistrates as " fellow-helpers," they have practised a degree 
 of cruelty and intolerance towards others, little short of the 
 Roman Inquisition itself. A commixture with other sects, the 
 genius of our government, and the interposition of the secular 
 arm, in behalf of liberty of conscience, have arrested their 
 violence and softened their asperities. These checks once 
 removed, and there is no longer any security for dissenters. 
 Of this we have an earnest in the temper manifested by <• Paul," 
 by W. M. Engles, by Dwight, and other Presbyterian writers. 
 In their schools and colleges, and under the tuition of Calvin- 
 istic theologians, those pious young men, educated for the minis- 
 try, are drilled into a firm belief, that all other systems, but 
 the Calvinistic, are tinctured with heresy ; and that this is the 
 only true religion in the world. Moreover, they are made to 
 pledge themselves, to maintain and to teach the doctrines and 
 tenets comprised in the « Confession of Faith," and no other,' 
 and thus the Calvinistic system remains the same (essentially) 
 as when it came warm from the hands of the Westminster As- 
 sembly : and superstition, ignorance, and error is perpetuated 
 from age to age ; and the light and knowlege shed upon the 
 nature of the Christian religion, is, to these system-builders, 
 shed in vain ' 
 
134 
 
 Seeing, therefore, that the homogeneous character, toestab- 
 blish which, ptr fas atitnefaSf such strenuous efforts are now 
 making in tiiis country, is the same that shed so baleful an 
 inliuence in Geneva, in Holland, over the Presbyterian parlia- 
 ment, and the courts of New England, I think every friend 
 to religious liberty has abundant cause devoutly to pray : 
 " From such an influtnce good Lord deliver us ! .'" 
 
LETTER VI. 
 
 OF COMPELLATION AND TITLES— OF WORSHIP- 
 THE SABBATH— OATHS. 
 
 1. OF COMPELLATION AND TITLES. 
 
 "Holdfast tliefomi of sound words" — " sound speech that cannot be condemned." 
 
 2 Tim. i. 13, Tit. ii. 8. 
 
 THERE is no passion of the human soul more deprecated in 
 the sacred volume ; none represented to be more unclean in the 
 sight of God, than pride or self-exaltation. It was the main 
 spring, which the grand adversary of man's happiness operated 
 on to effect his fall : ** Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 
 evil" — and this same principle continues to be a chief obstacle, 
 a grand barrier to his salvation. On the other hand, there is no 
 state or disposition of the human mind, according to Scripture 
 testimony, more essential in the formation of the religious cha- 
 racter, than that of humility, or the abasement of self. « Before 
 honour," says the Scripture, " is humility, and by it and the 
 fear of the Lord, are riches, and honour, and life." Humility 
 forms the stepping stone to the throne of divine mercy. It is 
 interwoven with every virtue. It is the salt which seasons every 
 offering,^ — the sweet-smelling savour which must ascend from 
 every sacrifice, witliout which there can be no reconciliation 
 nor acceptance. Hence it becomes a matter of the liighest im- 
 portance, that every thing which may have a tendency, even 
 in the remotest degree, to exalt the creature, or impede the 
 growth of humility, should be lopped off, as having no place in 
 the Christian system. 
 
 It is under this solemn view of the subject, that the Quakers 
 have ceased to use the plural expression you, to a single per- 
 son, together with other ceremonious words and titles in com- 
 mon use with the world, because they have a direct tendency 
 to keep alive that principle in man which is diametrically 
 opposed to the humbling and saving operation of divine grace. 
 
136 
 
 I'he practice of addressing a single peraon in the plural 
 number, arose in the fourth century. It is first met with in 
 the epistles of Symmachus to the emperor Theodosius, in which 
 he is styled " your godhead, your eternity," &c. The author 
 of this impious flattery was a Roman senator, and once headed 
 a deputation from the senate, praying for the eximlsion of 
 Christianity and the restoration of heathen worship. He had been 
 banished from the court, but this blasphemous incense, offered 
 to his vain-glorious master, eflected his recall and exaltation 
 to the consulate. Such is the source of this vain custom ; a 
 custom not less at variance with the first principles of univer- 
 sal grammar, than with the language and precepts of the Bible : 
 a custom which learned and pious men have not ceased to re- 
 monstrate against in every age. Thus Howell, in his history 
 of France, written about the year 1630, says : *< In ancient 
 times the peasants addressed their kings with the appellation 
 of thoUf but pride and flattery first put inferiors upon paying a 
 plural respect to the single person of every superior, and supe- 
 riors upon receiving it." Also, John Maresius, a member of 
 the French Academy, in the preface to his Clovis, says : « Let 
 none wonder that the word thou is used to princes and prin- 
 cesses in this work, for we use the same to God, and of old the 
 same w^as used to Alexanders, Cesars, queens, and empresses. 
 The use of the word you was only introduced by those base 
 flatteries of men of later ages, from whence it came at last to 
 persons of lower quality." Erasmus also wrote a treatise in 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, on the impropriety of 
 substituting you for thoUf and states, <« that this strange substi- 
 tution originated wholly in the flattery of men." Luther, about 
 the same time, spared no pains to expunge the word you, and to 
 put thou in its place. In his " Ludus," he ridicules the use of 
 the former in the following manner: "Magister, vos estisiratus? 
 in English equivalent to, ** gentlemen art thou ajigry?'* 
 
 The objections which I have mentioned to the use of you to 
 one person, apply with still greater force against all titles of 
 honor, and compliments, and are positively forbidden in the 
 New Testament. The Pharisees and Scribes loved " to be 
 called of men Rabbi, Rabbi ; but be ye not called Rabbi, for one 
 is your master even Christ, and all ye are brethren." This 
 word is derived from the Hebrew verb nai, which signifies to 
 become great, or many, to increase or magnify ; and in this 
 sense the word Rabbi was used among the Jews, as a title of 
 honor, ascribing (as it were) to one person, the power, or wis- 
 dom, or learning of many : which is analagous to the origin 
 and application of the plural expression you to a single indivi- 
 
137 
 
 dual, as possessing in himself, the virtue, power, or dignity 
 of a plurality of persons. The words Sir, Mr. and Master, in 
 our language, are all of the same inij)ort, the first being derived 
 from the French (sicur, i. v. master or sire) and the second be- 
 ing merely a contraction of muster; and thus the prohibition 
 of our Lord applies verbatim et literatim, to each of these 
 terms : ** Be ye not called Rabbi.'' 
 
 But this is not the only place where these vain customs and 
 fashions of the world arc declared to be in opposition to the 
 Christian character. Our Saviour and his Apostles every 
 where, both by precept and example, plainly testify against 
 them J and for this obvious reason, that they not only tend to 
 inflate and exalt the creature, but are replete witii hvpocrisy 
 and falsehood. Thus, how often are the honours of the tongue 
 and the hat rendered by those, whose hearts are, at the same 
 moment rankling with envy, or malice, or hatred towards the 
 persons whom they thus address ! How frequently do we hear 
 such salutations as these: <♦ I am your humble servant" — '• Your 
 most obedient," 6cc. &c., when the authors of such declarations, 
 would even refuse to perform a common act of civility, much 
 less stoop to do a servile office. " Thus," says the Psalmist, 
 <* they speak vanity every (me with his neighbour; with flat- 
 tering lips, and a double heart do they speak.'* ** Take heed 
 hereafter," said the Bishop Paulinus, to Sulpitius Severus, 
 " how thou, being from a servant, called into liberty, dost sub- 
 scribe thyself servant to one, who is thy brother and fellow 
 servant ; for it is a sinful flattery, not a testimony of humility^ 
 to pay those honours to a man and a sinner, which arc due to 
 the one God, one Master, and one Lord." 
 
 How often are the titles of excellency, grace, honour, &c. &e. 
 applied to men who are worthless, graceless, base and ignoble ! 
 Certainly if the example of Elibu, « let me not, I pray you, 
 accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles 
 unto man, for I know not to give flattering titles j in so 
 doing my Maker would soon take me away;" and the injunc- 
 tion of the Apostle, " to be holy in all manner of conversation ;'* 
 with the declaration, that <♦ for every idle word that men speak, 
 they shall be brought to judgment," were suff*ered to have their 
 due weight, such " lying vanities" would not be heard from 
 the lips of Christians. '« How can such believe, who thus re» 
 ceivc honour of men, and seek not that honour which cometh 
 from God only ?" 
 
 It is a very common apology for the use of vain titles, and 
 fashionable modes of salutation, to say, that they have ceased to 
 fosttr pride and vanity f and are neither given nor received in that 
 
 » 
 
sense. An excellent reason this for the omissiun of them^ 
 seeing they are '* idle words,^^ and destitute of meaning. But 
 this specious reason only evinces the trutli of the Scripture 
 declaration, that " the heart of man is deceitful above all 
 things, and desperately wicked.** By the force of habit, men 
 become less and less conscious of tlie effect of those vain and 
 servile compliments ; and it is not until they are aftsfracfed, that 
 they are made sensible of the place which they have had in their 
 esteem. The same argument was advanced in the days of Fox, 
 and his brethren, but no sooner were these blandishments with- 
 held, than a violent persecution succeeded, and personal abuse, 
 bonds, and imprisonment, were, on this account merely, often 
 bestowed by the priesthood and magistracy, on those unresist- 
 ing sufferers, for thus following the precepts and examples of 
 our Lord and his Apostles. 
 
 We sometimes hear even Scripture authority advanced to 
 justify the use of complimentary epithets. A brief examina- 
 tion will show how slender the support is, that is drawn from 
 this quarter. The Hebrew word 'anx, used by the sons of Jacob 
 in Genesis xliii. 20, and translated sir, is the same word which 
 is rendered lord in other places. It is derived from n, which 
 means to rule, to judge, to direct ; and, in this place, being 
 applied to the steward of Joseph's house, who was, in fact, a 
 ruler, or director, cannot be considered as used out of mere 
 flattery, any more than the use of the word governor, applied 
 by us to the chief magistrate of a state. 
 
 In the New Testament the Greek, word Kvpin is translated 
 iir in about a dozen places ; but in other places lord. It is 
 derived from Kvpot, i. e. a^ithorityf and is applied t(» those in 
 power, or in the exercise of some kind of authority, as the 
 word imports, and not through mere ceremony, or flattery. 
 Thus the servants address their master, Matt. xiii. 27 ; and 
 the son his father, Matt. xxi. 30 : the Scribes also use it 
 to Pilate, Matt, xxvii. 63 ; and our Saviour is addressed in 
 like manner by the woman of Samaria, the nobleman, and the 
 impotent man ; doubtless from a sense which they all had of 
 his exalted character. 
 
 The word sirs is found in several places in the New Testa- 
 ment ; but in every case except one, violence is done to the text, 
 the word in the original being Av^fa, the plural of Anq, the 
 common Greek word for a man. Thus in Acts vii. 26, it is 
 literally translated « men, ye are brethren," &c. The same 
 remark applies to Acts xiv. lb, and xix. 25, and xxvii. 10. In 
 one place only is the word Kvptot, i. e. sirs or masters, found ; 
 and that is when the affrighted jailor^ addressing the Apostles, 
 
139 
 
 exclaims: *' sirs, what shall I do to be saved !" The circum- 
 stances of this case were well calculated to inspire the jailor 
 with an exalted irfmof those whom he thus addressed. Neither 
 bars nor I)ults could confine them ! They were literally liis 
 masters. 
 
 Thus we do not find in the Scripture, an instance of the use 
 of the ceremonious word yoii, to a single person, nor that of Mr. 
 or Sir, as a mere complimentary epithet. Much less do we find 
 our Lord's discii)les or apostles attaching to their names the 
 titles oi reverend, right reverend, &c. Can any other reasons 
 be assigned on the part of your clergy, for adhering to, and 
 claiming these titles, than that of procuring to tliemselves ho- 
 nour and distinction from their fellow worms ? Do they not be- 
 tray a manifest discrepancy in holding forth the Scriptures to 
 the world as ** the onltj rule oj faith and practice,''^ whilst them- 
 selves are violating its plainest precejits ? <« Be ye not called 
 Rabbi :" — *' How can ye believe, which receive honour one of 
 another, and seek not the honour which cometh from God only?" 
 I should be glad to discover any other reason for thus affixing 
 titles to their names, and wearin-g a garb of a 'particular colour, 
 than a love of that kind of distinction which harmonizes with 
 the spirit of the world. I should rejoice, could I believe that 
 these practices did not constitute the rabbinical salutations, and 
 the ** long pobes," and the ** broad phylacteries" of our own 
 times ; and that those who are clothed with the linen ephod in 
 the visible church, were, generally, endowed with a degree of 
 humility suited to their functions, and that they could, in truth, 
 say to their flocks, " come and learn of us, for we are meek and 
 low of heart !"* 
 
 • Among^ the various means used ia modem times to promote the views of 
 a. hireling', mercenary priesthood, the religions newspapers (so called) are not 
 the least conspicuous. In evidence of this, I quote the following, by " Philo," 
 a writer in the Christian Repository. This modern Demetrius says, that God 
 requires of us one-tenth of all we possess, to be g-lven to the clergy. " Why,'' 
 he asks, "ought we to provide a maintenance for the clergy?" — "It is," 
 answers he, " necessary that their maintenance should bear some proportion 
 to the dignity of their character, who are amba»aadora for Christ, and should 
 raise them above the contempt of those who are too apt to be influenced by 
 outward appearances :" (i. e. to judge according to our Saviour''s rule, by fruits.) 
 " And, in fine," continues Phllo, '* their maintenance should be honourable 
 and plentiful, that by tids Tnea?!* they may be better enabled not only to provide 
 for their own families, -which ia a duty incximbent upon them as the rest of mankind ; 
 [very good, why do they not do it ?] but to be examples to their flocks In hos- 
 pitality, beneficence, and f corf loorks /" — " All nations have agreed in this" — 
 "In all countries the priests en]oye A great marks of pre-eminence axvd power " 
 
 These papers are also used as heralds to proclaim 'lonations to the clergy, in 
 order that others may be induced, by the vain and unjustifiable hope .of harinff 
 their namea publishert, «' to come forward and do likewise." 
 
140 
 
 We have nothing of the right reverend Paul, nor of the 
 reverend Peter, D. D. They soared ahove those carnal dis- 
 tinctions ; they had no occasion to resort, like your modern 
 clergy, to artificial means, to surround their names ^with a 
 halo of false glory, whilst the beams of the gospel virtues shed 
 upon them a genuine, never-fading lustre ! ! 
 
 How striking is the fact, that although every kind and cast 
 of human character are, in the sacred writings, repeatedly 
 brought before us on the stage of action, yet so parsimonious 
 and rare is the use of flattering titles ! Had such a book been 
 compiled by our modern clergy, how would it have abounded 
 witli titidar honours^ bestowed on miserable sinners, from the 
 awful names of holiness, and sacred majesty, right reverend, 
 and reverend, down to the more plebian compliments of Mr. 
 and Madam, and Sir ! ! It is thus that man, by yielding to the 
 propensities of his fallen nature, and conscious of wanting those 
 solid qualities, the Christian virtues, which would confer a me- 
 rited distinction, seeks to obtain that distinction, by grasping 
 at honours which are vain and perishable ; and hence misses of 
 that honour which alone has in it an enduring substance, and 
 << Cometh from God only.'* 
 
 2. OF WORSHIP. 
 
 One of the charges brought against the Quakers by your minister , ts, 
 that they " hold too many silent meetings, and neglect preaching, 
 praying," <§*c. Vid. Chr. Repos. vol. i. No. 42. 
 
 It is not my design to enter into a defence, or to prove the 
 reasonableness of silent worships but I may briefly remark, tliat 
 to a Being who is every where present; who *' seeth not as 
 man sseth, but looketh at the heart ;" and wlio <* knoweth the 
 thoughts and intents of the heart," — to such a Being the Qua- 
 kers believe acceptable worship may be, and often is performed 
 both in an individual and a collective capacity, in the secret of 
 the soul, and without audible sounds. They, therefore, do not 
 go to their religious assemblies with sermons or prayers pre- 
 viously conceived or written down, lest they be found approach- 
 ing God with the lip and the tongue only, whilst the heart is 
 far from him ; and although they often pass the time of their 
 meeting together in silence, yet they cannot be said to neglect 
 ^reaching or praying. 
 
 But those who believe that vocal preaching and vocal prayer 
 arc essential to the worship of God ; and who never meet to- 
 gether for that purpose without some person appointed to per- 
 form this service ; should such, whilst judging others in this 
 
matter, be found in the omission thereof themselves, they mar 
 be truly charged witii neglect, (for it is " aceording to thy faith 
 be it unto thee") and may be numbered amongst tlmse to whom 
 thefollowingrebukeof the Apostle is applicable: "Andthinkest 
 thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and 
 doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God ?" 
 The following extract of a letter from John Seward, of Ohio, 
 found in the Christian Repository, vol. i. No. 3, furnishes some 
 reason, to fear that your minister may be of that number whom 
 the Apostle addresses in tlic foregoing quotation : 
 
 « That you may have some view of the necessity of mission 
 labours among us, I will state, that witiiin the bounds of this 
 preshjttry, there are no less than thirty-three churches, and but 
 eight ministers, or twenty-five churclies witliout a ministt r. In 
 Median county are seven churches and no minister : in Huron 
 county are eight churches and no minister: in Cuyahoga coun- 
 ty are four churches and one minister. B(^sides the destitute, 
 churches that have been mentioned, there are many towns 
 where are no churches, but many inhabitants, who must receive 
 attention from missionaries, or they will soon sink into a state of 
 heathenism / .'" 
 
 In addition td the above, give me leave to add a. quotation 
 from the ministers of the Synod of Philadelphia, found in the 
 Christian Repository, vol i. p. 138 : ? 
 
 Synod complains of « a dull and formal observance of divine 
 ordinances ; and indifference upon the great subjects of Chris- 
 tian experience and vital godliness ; a shameful backwardness 
 in many of the elders, and professing members of the church, to 
 engage in social prayer ; an opposition to meetings for prayer, 
 by others, both members and officers of the churcli ; a neglect 
 of the duty of family worship ; a careless walk and conversa- 
 tion, and the want of zeal for the honour and glory of the 
 Saviour, of love for the souls of men, and of an heart-felt con- 
 cern for the salvation of sinners, in not a few of such as have 
 professed to serve God." 
 
 This is a humiliating picture. Twenty-five churches in one 
 preshijtcry without a minister; and many towns without churches, 
 and the people on the verge of heathenism j and in another 
 preshjtery, not only professing members, but " elders and offi- 
 cers of the church opposing prayer andfamily worship /" Yet it 
 is into such hands that the keys of the kingdom of heaven are 
 delivered, ♦' by virtue of which they have power to retain and 
 remit sins, to shut that kingdom against tl>e impenitent, and to 
 open it to penitent sinners ! \" 
 
 In the Christian Repository, vol. i. No. 3S, we find your mi 
 iiister lamenting over the poor (Quakers in the following strain 
 
14»2 
 
 «« My soul weeps over tlie souls you are raining by keeping 
 them in ignorance of tlie only true God, and the salvation of 
 Christ !" I think you will join with me in the wish, that ybur 
 minister may not exhaust all his tears on incurable « heretics," 
 whilst those of his own household, who are almost ** sinking 
 into a state of heathenism," have so just a claim to participate 
 in his tender sympathies ! 
 
 But if such be the state of your elders and officers, what must 
 be the condition of the body ! If the heart be thus fainU how is 
 the vital fluid to circulate to the extreme parts ? Is there not a 
 strange inconsistency in going several thousand miles to con- 
 vert the heathen, whilst there are so many of your own mem- 
 bers at home, destitute of spiritual guides, and on the eve of 
 sinking into a state of heathenism ? 
 
 The erroneous foundation on which your system is built, is 
 very fully illustrated by the foregoing statements. Here are 
 ?io less than twenty -five congregations within the bounds of one 
 presbytery, who have abandoned the public worship of God, 
 until priests can be manufactured for them, or until they be- 
 come rich enough to make a call that will reach to Princeton or 
 Jindover ! 
 
 Truly, your condition is worse than that of the Jews under 
 the law : "JVowfor a long season Israel hath been without the true 
 God, and without a teaching priest, and without law : But 
 when thetj in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel 
 and sought him, he was found of them." 2 Chron. xv. 3, 4, 5. 
 
 Now ** wherefore stand ye all the day idle?" and why do ye 
 cry, i* give us ministers or we die .'" Why not in your trouble 
 turn unto the Lord and seek him as the Jews did ? He was Urns 
 found of them, and is not *< Ciirist the mediator of a better cove- 
 nant, which was established upon better promises T'' and unto 
 those who turn unto him, and seek him, will he not " appear the 
 second time without sin unto salvation ?" Why, therefore, not 
 assemble yourselves together, in obedience to the Apostolic in- 
 junction, and " offer your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- 
 ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service?" Is it 
 not because you are under the trammels of a theological system, 
 contrived by men " who preach for hire, and divine for money," 
 and are «* seeking their gains from their quarter :" — Men who 
 hold a rod over you, and have drilled you into the belief, that 
 you cannot worship God without them ; and that any one among 
 you who shall attempt to preach or pray in your assemblies, 
 that has not learned Latin and Greek, and received his com- 
 mission, " like an electric spark," through their finger ends, 
 shall be denounced as " afanatiCf and a disturber of the church 
 of Christ /" 
 
143 
 
 3. THE SABBATH. 
 
 In your Confession of Faith, chapter xxi. 7, we are told that 
 tlie fourtli commandment is perpetually binding upon all men in 
 all ages. Where your theologians have found data for this asser- 
 tion, I am at a loss to discover ; certainly not in the Bible, as 
 I shall proceed to show. 
 
 1 . The command to observe a Sabbath is met with no where but 
 in the law oj Moses , and this command was limitted to the Jews : 
 <« Wherefore the children oj Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to ob- 
 serve the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual 
 covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel 
 
 forever.'* Exod. xxxi. 16, 17. 
 
 Here the children of Israel are expressly mentioned, and they 
 only. There is no evidence on record, that the keeping of a 
 Sabbath was ever enjoined upon any other nation or people. 
 
 2. This institution ended with the Jewish polity j there is neither 
 precept nor command in the JVew Testament, making the obser- 
 vance of a Sabbath obligatory under tJie Christian dispensation. 
 
 For proof of this I need only refer to the book itself. It is 
 never once mentioned, neither by Christ, nor his Apostles ; and 
 the only testimony brought forward to support it, is barely pre- 
 sumptive. Thus it is said : 
 
 1. That Christ appeared to his disciples, after his resurrec- 
 tion on the first day of the week, and this circumstance consti- 
 tuted it a Sabbath. Now what connection is there between 
 our Lord's thus appearing, and the institution of a Sabbath ? 
 Or ought this event to be deemed tantamount to instituting the 
 first day as one to be forever kept holy unto the Lord, without 
 a word being said by Christ on the subject? But our Saviour 
 appeared but once on this day, and that to two of his disciples 
 only, as they journeyed to Emmaus. On the evening of that 
 day he did appear to the eleven ; but, according to the Jewish 
 division of time, this was the beginning of the second day of the 
 week. Eight days after this he appeared again, i. e. on the 
 third day of the week ; and thus, if our Lord's appearance is 
 to constitute a holy day, or Sabbath, there are at least three 
 which have an equal claim to that pre-eminence ! 
 
 2. That the disciples were used to meet on the first day of the 
 week. The resorting to such feeble^rguments to support this 
 institution, demonstrates the sandy foundation on which it 
 stands. There are several religious societies at this time, 
 who meet together on certain fixed days of the week, for the 
 purpose of worship, or discipline ; and would it not be very un- 
 warrantable for those who may be speculating some thousand 
 
years hence on these proceedings, to draw the conclusion, that 
 these days had been kept as Sabbaths? 
 
 3. The text in Revelation i. 10, is quoted in confirmation of 
 a Christian Sabbath : "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." 
 This is taken for the^rs^ day of tlie week j but the assumption 
 is gratuitous, for, no where in the Bible is the first day of the 
 week called the Lord's day. In many places we read in Scrip- 
 ture concerning " the day of the Lord" yet who believes that 
 there is in these passages, any reference to a particular day of 
 the week ? But is not every day the Lord's ? And if the first day 
 of the w eek only is his, to whom do the other six belong, or 
 where is the difference between the day of the Lord, and the 
 Lord's day ? 
 
 So much on substituting the first day for the seventh, and 
 observing it as a Jewish Sabbath. I shall now proceed to show 
 that neither this day, nor any other day, was kept by the 
 Apostles nor primitive Christians, as a holy day, or Sabbath, 
 This appears : 
 
 1. From the^ew Testament giving neither precept nor command 
 so to do. 
 
 2. From Paul in Colossians ii. 16 — <* Let no man, therefore 
 judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or 
 of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadoxv of 
 things to come." 
 
 Here it is very manifest that the Apostle places tiie Jewish 
 Sabbath on the same footing with « meats and drinks and new 
 moons," and which had passed away with the Jewish state* 
 and dispensation, and were no longer obligatory upon Chris- 
 tians. He declares it to be a mere shadoxv^ which he wonld not 
 have done had he believed the observance of it to have been 
 *< perpetually binding,"^ In short, as the Jewish rite of circum- 
 cision, was a type of the inward and spiritual circumcision of 
 the heart, and as the outward washings and eleansings were 
 types or figures, of the inward and spiritual cleansing of the 
 soul ; so was the Sabbath, or rest of the outward body, a 
 shadoyv or type of that inward and spi."itual rest and {)eace 
 realized.by the believer, in and through Christ Jesus — " Koi 
 he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own 
 works, as God did from^is — let us labour therefore to enter 
 into that rest." Heb. iii. 10, (see the whole of the iii. and iv. 
 chapters to the Hebrews.) 
 
 3. From the testimony of Justin Martyr. This distinguished 
 CJiristian, and author, wrote about the year 150. In a work 
 of his, written in defence of Christianity, in the form of a dia- 
 logue between himself and Trypho, a learned Jew, tlie latter 
 
115 
 
 offers the following objection : " The Cliristians, though they 
 boast of the truth of their religion, and wish to excel all other 
 people, differ in nothing from the heatiien in their manner of liv- 
 ing, because they neither observe the Sabbath, nor circumcision." 
 This language, put into tlie mouth of the Jew by Justin, 
 proves that the Christians of that time did not observe the Sab- 
 bath. If it be said that the objection on the part of the Jew 
 arose from the Christians kee])ing the first day as a Sabbath 
 and not the seventh, I answer : the ternui of Justin's reply set- 
 tles this point also — »« There is,*' says he, *' another kind of cir- 
 cumcision, and you think higliJy of that of the Jlesh. The law 
 will have you keep ?>. jierpetual Sabbath, and you, when you have 
 spent one day in idleness, think you are religious, not knowing 
 why it was commanded." (^JYoiv had the Christians been accns- _ 
 tomed to spend thejirst day in " idleness,*'' there would have been 
 a ridiculous inconsistency in such a reply,) " As therefore," con- 
 tinues he, "• circumcision began from Abraham, and Sabbath, 
 and sacrifice, and oblation from Moses, wllich, it has been 
 shewn, were ordained on account of your nation's hardness of 
 heart; so, according to the counsel of the Fathers, they were 
 to end in Jesus Christ the son of God.** — " Do you not see that the 
 elements are never idle, nor keep a Sabbath ? Continue as you 
 were created ; for if there was no need of circumcision before 
 Abraham, nor of the observance of the Sabbath, and festivals, 
 and oblations, before Moses, neither now is there likewise after 
 Christ." 
 
 Now is it possible that the Christians could, in that age, 
 have kept a Sabbath, and Justin not know it ? Is it possible 
 that the Apostles and Christians before Justin's time, could 
 have kept a Sabbath, and the knowledge of it be lost to this 
 learned and inquiring writer, within fifty years after the death 
 of the last of the Apostles ? Every one will answer no ! The 
 testimony of this author, therefore, proves, that a Sabbath was 
 not kept by the Christians of his time, neither by those who pre- 
 ceded them. 
 
 When and how, then, did the practice of observing a Sabbath 
 arise among Christians ? I answer, from the following decree 
 of the Roman emperor Constantine, made in the third century: 
 " Let all judges and town people, and the occupations of all 
 trades rest on the venerable day of the sun. (Die Solis.) But 
 let those who are situated in the country, freely, and at full 
 liberty, attend to the business of agriculture, because it often 
 happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting 
 vines, lest the critical moment being let slip, men should lose 
 the commodities granted them by the providence of heaven." 
 
Now this decree shows, that the general observance of a Sab- 
 bath, or *« day of idleness," did not then exist, otherwise there 
 would have been no reason for its enactment — that the excep- 
 tion contained in it with respect to agriculturalists, stamps it with 
 a character very different from the Jewish Sabbath — that the 
 institution grew out of a union of church and state ; and lastly — 
 that the choice of the^rsf day of the week^ arose from the hea- 
 then practice of worshipping the sun on that day ; — the newly 
 converted emperor, thus engrafting a Gentile custom upon the 
 Christian system, from the habitual regard which he had been 
 accustomed to entertain for the '< venerable day of the suw/" 
 
 From what has been said, I believe the impartial reader will 
 readily perceive, that the declaration quoted from your Confes- 
 sion of Faith, like many other things contained in that absurd 
 .production, has nothing to support it, but the ipse dixit of the 
 Westminster Assembly. 
 
 With respect to the moral necessity or expediency of setting 
 apart one day in seven as a day of rest, and to afford an oppor- 
 tunity to worship the God of our lives and our every blessing, 
 this is another, and a very distinct question. Not one day in seven 
 only, but every day and hour of our lives, is equally the Lord*s ; 
 and it is the duty of the Christian to endeavour to keep every 
 day holy unto the Lord ; and to meet at stated periods for the 
 purpose of public worship, and present his body a living sacri- 
 fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is his reasonable service. 
 
 The experiment of attempting by civil laws, to coerce men 
 into religion, has been sufficiently tried ; it may make, and has 
 made many hypocrites, but as to making men better citizens, or 
 better Christians, it is alike contrary to sound reason, and all 
 experience. All the governments in Christendom have adopted 
 the precedent furnished by the decree of Constantine ; and thus, 
 (to use the words of Justin) " a day of idleness" is created every 
 where, and as idleness is commonly the parent of vice, there is 
 more folly and wickedness committed on that day, than on any 
 other day in the week. 
 
 Your minister, in his address to the Quakers, in the Reposi- 
 tory, says : « the Sabbath you lay aside." Now, in practice, 
 the Quakers as a body, are, I believe, as exemplary in abstain- 
 ing from their secular employments, and in meeting for public 
 worship, on the first day of the week, as other Christian sects : 
 and they disown such of their members as persist in the neglect 
 of attending their religious meetings. But how does this mat- 
 ter stand with this accuser and his brethren ? You profess to 
 believe that the Sabbath, as kept by the Jews, is binding 
 upon you : do you keep it as did that people ? By no means. 
 
147 
 
 You do not keep it at all ! ! You have substituted another day, 
 and that without any»good or sufficient reason. Neither do you 
 keep this day as the Jews were commanded to keep their's ; 
 *< In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy 
 dauj^hter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cat- 
 tle.*' Do you keep your Sabbath on this wise ? Certainly not. 
 Amonj^st the numerous cases wherein it is liabitually infringed, 
 there is one wluch stands conspicuous : so much so, that it has 
 opened the mouth, even of a heathen, against you. I will give 
 it in his own words. « It is not Jehovah," said the the Indian 
 Chief to a Missionary, « but gold tliat is the Christian's god. 
 They cannot worship in their temples without passing about 
 the money-chargers, and collecting the coin, even on their hoiy 
 SABBATH DAY. Mammon, instead of Christ, is their master. 
 Go and cleanse your own temples of these pollutions, and get your 
 mission from on high, and return to us, and we will hear you .'" 
 
 You may object, perhaps, that this testimony against you 
 does not come from an orthodox quarter : I will therefore pre- 
 sent you with another, from a source which you ought not to 
 call in question. It is found in the Christian Repository, vol. 
 i. No. 34, and is taken from the minutes of the Synod of PhilU' 
 delphia* It is as follows : 
 
 « Synod deeply and sincerely laments in 7na7it/ of their churches 
 a sad laxity of discipline, and that in many places, the vices of 
 intemperance and Sabbath breaking do notoriously abound!!!** 
 
 *' Behold, thou restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God; 
 and art confidtnt that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light 
 of them whichlare in darkness ; thou, therefore, which teachest 
 another., teachest not thou thyself? Thou that makest thy boast of 
 the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God^*^ Rom, 
 chap. ii. 
 
 i. OF OATHS. 
 
 Your Society are uniformly in the practice of swearing, or 
 using oaths when legally required ; and you appear to believe, 
 that in so doing, you are performing a Christian duty, an ac- 
 ceptable service to God ; for in your Confession, chap. xxii. 
 1, we are told that *' a lawful oath is a part of religious war' 
 ship!" I shall proceed to examine the foundation on which this 
 practice rests. 
 
 The authority for the use of oaths among Christians, your 
 theologians deduce from the laws given to the Jews, and the 
 injunctions found in the Old Testament to obey them. But 
 Httle reflection is wanting to perceive the futility of all argu- 
 
148 
 
 ments drawn from this quarter, to establish the validity of 
 Jewish customs, under the Christian dispensation. The laws 
 and ordinances given to the Jews, were rto doubt well adapted 
 to the moral state of that people, and so far as any other nation 
 are in a like state, just so far, and no more, are those laws and 
 ordinances proper for such a people to adopt. 
 
 The Jews were in an outward, carnal state, and the laws 
 given to them were, in a corresponding degree, outward and car- 
 nal. *' For the hardness of your hearts," (the lowness of your 
 moral state) said Christ to the Jews, in allusion to divorcements, 
 « Moses gave you this precept;" and not, therefore, because 
 the precept was good in itself. " And their eyes," said the 
 prophet, " were after their father's idols, wherefore I gave 
 them statutes that were not good." Now these remarks apply 
 to the law respecting oaths and other Jewish ordinances. The 
 Jews were prone to idolatry ; and the surrounding nations were 
 idolutors, and swore by their idols. Therefore, in order 
 to draw them off from idols, and fix their attention upon the 
 one true and living God, it was ordained that they should swear 
 by him alone. " Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve 
 Mm, and shalt swear by his name," (not by that of an idol.) 
 
 To infer, therefore, that the use of oaths is binding on Chris- 
 tians, because commanded the Jews, and that it constitutes a 
 part of Christian worship, is neither consistent with reason, 
 nor Scripture. But I shall now show that oaths are distinctly 
 abrogated by our Saviour, in Mat. v. 33 to 37. 
 
 <* Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old 
 time, thou shalt notforswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the 
 Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all ; nei- 
 ther by heaven, nor by the earth, &c. but let your communi- 
 cation be yea, yea ; nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these 
 Cometh of evil.''* 
 
 In corroboration of the above, the Apostle James, in sl general 
 epistle" to all Christians, says: ** But above all things, my 
 brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, 
 neither by any other oath : but let your yea, be yea : and your 
 nay, nay ; lest ye fall into condemnation. — v. 12. 
 
 Here the abrogation of oaths is clear and unequivocal. — 
 « Swear not at all ; neither by heaven, nor by the earth ; nei- 
 ther hy any other oath.''* Yet, notwithstanding the plain terms 
 in which this prohibition is couched, your theologians teach 
 that an **oath is a part of religious worship.''* and they evade 
 the force of these texts, by asserting : 
 
 1. That the prohibition relates only to profane or unlawful 
 swearing. To whi«h I answer, that ail such swearing was 
 
149 
 
 belbre forbidden under the law ; but here Christ prohibits 
 somethin,^ that had been permitted ** in old time." This 
 appears fully by the context. Thus in verse 38, Christ says : 
 «< Ye have heard that it hatb been said, an eye for an eye, and a 
 toothfor a tooth; but I say unto you that yon resist not evil." Here 
 the law in Exodus xxi. 24, is repealed, and in language and 
 manner like the abrogation of oaths in the verses immediately 
 preceding. Moreover, the word forswear, with the expression, 
 <* perform unto the Lord thine oaths," apply distinctly to formal, 
 legal oaths, and not to profane swearing. 
 
 2. That the form of swearing here forbidden, as ♦' hy heaven, 
 by Jerusalem," Sfc. was not the judicial oath among the Jews, 
 hence not included in the prohibition. It is true, that the lawful 
 oath of the Jews was to swear by the name of God. But to 
 forbid swearing by heaven, is to forbid doing it by God also ; for 
 our Lord, in Matthew xxiii. 22, declares, that *< he that shall 
 swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and he that 
 
 SITTETH THEREON." 
 
 3. That to swear by the name of God is a moral precept of eternal 
 duration, because joined with his worship, as " thou shall fear the 
 Lord and swear by his name.^^ I reply, that this does not prove 
 it a perpetual ordinance ; for the expression, « thou shalt fear 
 the Lord," &c. is coupled with many ordinances universally 
 acknowledged to be repealed : thus the fear of the Lord is men- 
 tioned along with his statutes in Deut. x.l2, 13 ; and with the 
 tythes, in xiv. 23, &c. 
 
 4. That oaths commanded by the Mmighty, cannot be the same 
 that are forbidden by Christ, who says, " they come from evil,*'* 
 but God never commanded evil," Sfc. To which I answer, many 
 l)recepts were ordained by God for the Jews, which were good 
 because applicable to the state of that people, yet evil for Chris- 
 tians, as circumcision, burnt offerings, &c. Thus Christ him- 
 self says : '* Moses on account of the hardness of your hearts, 
 suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning 
 it was not so. So truth was before oaths, and will remain when 
 oaths shall be done away. But oaths had not their origin from 
 God, but from the father of lies, and were invented by corrupt 
 men as a mutual security against their own moral depravity, 
 in which they called on the names of their idols ; and hence 
 oaths were given to the Israelites to withdraw them from the- 
 idolatrous oaths of their heathen neighbours. 
 
 5. That God himself swore ; therefore it is right for man. The 
 immutability of God's will and purpose, was announced in this 
 manner, to a people whose conceptions were in a high degree 
 outward and carnal. It is impossible to believe that God ever 
 
150 
 
 •wore after the manner of men ; it being the property of an oath 
 to swear by another. 
 
 6. That Christ swore, and Christians should follow his example. 
 To prove this, it wouhl be necessary to show, that the strong 
 
 appeal made by the high priest to Christ, in the expression, / 
 adjure thte, &c. was a tender of a formal, judicial oath ; and 
 2d. that Christ ioofe it ; but neither of these cases can be made 
 out. Yet had Ciirist sworn, being " made binder the law-,^^ it 
 would not have been binding on those under the gospel, to adopt 
 the example, any more than his circumcision. On this subject, 
 Hierom says : '< All things agree not unto us, who are servants, 
 that agreed unto our Lord, &c. The Lord swore as Lord, 
 whom no man did forbid to swear, but unto us that are servants, 
 it is not lawful to swear, because we are forbidden by the law 
 of ojir Lord. Yet since we should sufter scandal by his exam- 
 ple, he iiath not sworn, since he commanded us not to swear." 
 
 7. That Paul swore, and that often; saying, <» for God is my 
 pecord ; I call God for a record on my soul," &^c. 
 
 These are mere solemn attestations, used in solemn cases. 
 Paul was not before legal authority, requiring an oath of him. 
 nor did he ever administer one. In these expressions of the 
 Apostle, there is neither the form nor ceremony of a judicial 
 oath. If Paul swore at all, then, he must have swovn jjr of anely, 
 and contrary to any precept in the law ! Cut it is not what Paul 
 or another man did, but what our Saviour has commanded, that 
 concerns Christians. 
 
 8. That Isaiah, speaking of the gospel day, saith : " that he 
 who blcsseth himself in the earth, shall bless himself in the 
 God of truth, and he thn.ts7Vtareth in the earth, shall swear by 
 the God of truth." Therefore we ought to swear, &c. 
 
 To this I reply, that the prophet wrote as a Jew, and spoke 
 of Christian duties in terms of the law. Thus the same prophet 
 says: « I have«\vorn by myself, that unto me every knee shall 
 bow, and every tongue shall swear.'' But the Apostle interprets 
 this passage thus : *« As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall 
 bow to me, and every tongue confess to God.'* 
 
 9. That the Apostle sanctions oaths when he says: '< For men 
 verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to 
 them an end of all strife." Heb. vi. 16. But contests, Sfc. 
 continue, and oaths are therefore as necessary now as then. 
 The Apostle here only states what litigious men (not Chris- 
 tians, were in the practice of, and not what they ought to have 
 done: and in order to increase the confidence of his brethren 
 in the promises of God, he makes this allusion : but it amounts 
 no more to a justification of oaths, than the &jllowing is of races: 
 
151 
 
 " know ye not that they which run in a race, run alU hut ont 
 ncdveth the pri%t ? Sonin that ye may obtain^ 1 Cor. ix.24. 
 See also Luke xiv. 31, where our Saviour tolls what a prudent 
 warrior should do before he goes to war ; yet no one infers that 
 in this, he, the Prince of Peace, was instructing his discijjles how 
 to fight ! 
 
 10. That although it be admitted, that the simple affirmation of 
 true Christians, ought to be deemed sufficient without an oath ,• 
 yet as these cannot be known, therefore oaths are still necessary. 
 I answer, that as oaths had their origin in the deceit and cor- 
 ruption of man, and not in the purp trutli, nor constituting a 
 part of divine worship, (as falsely asserted by your theologi- 
 ans) so as men are redeemed out of this stale which gave rise 
 to oaths, they ought in obedience to the command of Christ to 
 abandon them, without regard to the customs, commands, or 
 pleasure of their fellow creatures. But the practice of the, pri- 
 mitive Christians, for the first 300 years, is a sufficient answer 
 to all objections against the abrogation of oaths. They well 
 understood their Lord's command, and when required to swear, 
 their reply was, ** I am a christian, I do not swear."* 
 
 But not Christians only, but many wise heathens have tes- 
 tified against the use of oaths, as Solon, Pythagoras, Socrates, 
 Isocrates, Plato, &c. who had these sayings : "a good man ought 
 to be in that estimation, that he need not an oath." — " Let 
 no man call God to witness by an oath, no not in judgment, 
 but let every man so accustom himself to speak, tliat he may 
 become worthy to be trusted without an oath." — " The duty 
 of men requires, that they shew to the world, that their man- 
 ners and customs are more firm than oaths," &c. 
 
 11. Another argument used in favour of oaths is, that an 
 oath and an affirmation are essentially the same ;f that they are 
 both an appeal to God, and differing only in the form, and hence 
 that there is no more objection to one than the other ! ! 
 
 This is a summary way of getting over the difficulty : it is 
 cutting the Gordian knot. But how any one could embrace such an 
 
 * The testimonies to this fact are numerous and overwhelming. See Poly- 
 carpus ; Justin Martyr's Apolog. 2. — Tertullian in his Apol. cap. 32. ad. Scap. 
 cap. 1. of idolatry, cap. 11 — Clem. Alexand. Stromb. lib. 7. — Origen in Mat. 
 tract. 25 — Cj'perianus lib. 3. — Athanasius, in pass, and cruc. Domini Christi — 
 Helarius in Mat, v. 34. — Basil. Magor. in Psalm 14, together with Ambrose, 
 Chrysostom, Hyeronimus, Augustine, Cyrill, and many others. 
 
 -|- T-his view is taken by Adam Clarke in his Commentary on the 6th chapter 
 of Deuteronomy. Vet, on our Lord's words in chap. v. of Mathew, " Swear 
 not at all," the same author fuUy admits the evil tendency of oaths, and advises 
 us " to have aa little to do -with oaths as possible " But if an oath and an affirma- 
 tion be essentially the same, why give BUCk » caiation ? H.'ire I think this writer 
 IB inconsistent with himselk 
 
152 
 
 opinion, and confound things in their nature so distinct, and be- 
 tween which such a marked difference has been made in the 
 practice of all nations, in all ages, is difficult to conceive. An 
 affirmation is simply the act of affirming or declaring ; but an 
 oath is " an affirmation," corroborated hy the attestation of the 
 divine Being ; or it is a solemn action, whereby God is called to 
 witness the truth of an affirmation. That the Quakers hold up 
 their hand (as a certain learned writer has said) when they 
 affirm, is a great mistake. Such an action would appear to 
 €lothe an affirmation with more solemnity, but how it can trans- 
 form it into an oath, or change it into an ** appeal to God," is 
 entirely inexplicable. 
 
 12. It is objected that if oaths be abolished^ fraud, ^c. ivillfoU 
 low. To this it may be answered, that there are two considera- 
 tions which bind men to tell the truth ; the fear of God and the 
 fear of man ; or the love of truth, and the dread of the law. 
 Now good men will tell the truth without an oath, but bad 
 men will not be bound by an oath ; the fear of punishment only 
 influences them. If then the same (or if you please a greater) 
 punishment were annexed to the violation of an affirmation, as 
 to that of an oath, every purpose of an oath would be answered. 
 But what is the result of experience in this case ? Do oaths 
 exclude or prevent fraud and falsehood ? Far from it. Look 
 over Christendom — <* Because of swearing the land mourns ;'* 
 yea, and legal swearing too. Yet your divines tell us that this 
 *< is part of religious worship ! !'* A strange kind of worship, 
 that the more common it becomes, the more wickedness in- 
 creases. The frequency of oaths makes them cheap in the 
 minds of the people. A custom-house oath is proverbial for 
 its perfidy. But we need not go to the seaboard to look for 
 perjury. It is to be found every where ; even among the 
 sacred order I The Pope, for a mitre ; the Cardinal, for a hat ; 
 the Bishop, for a diocese ; and the lower clergy for their liv- 
 ings,* have all realized, in their own experience, the slender 
 obligations of an oath I 
 
 In our courts, oaths, instead of putting ** an end to strife," 
 only tend to increase and prolong it. Men are brought for- 
 ward to swear against each other, and thus truth is concealed 
 or evaded, rather than elicited. Many actions are instituted, 
 
 • When the Protestant religion was re-established in England, under queen 
 Elizabeth, '* of the great body of English clergy, says Tussel, 07i/i/ eighty rectors 
 and vicars, fifty prebendaries, fifteen heads of colleges, twelve archdeacons, 
 and as many deans sacrificed their livings for their Theological opinions." In 
 so doing these ecclesiastics denied \}\e doctrine of the Pope's supremacy, which 
 they had before solemnly pledged themselves to maintain, and took the oath 
 of allegiance and supremacy. 
 
 • 
 
153 
 
 originating in malice or revenge, or arising from petty quar- 
 rels or litigations, when the whole consideration at issue is 
 not worth a shilling. Yet it is in such cases that the awful 
 name of the divine Being is formally pronounced, and God is 
 appealed to as a witness to those transactions as matters of the 
 highest moment, in his holy sight, and yet of such a nature 
 that every honest man would blush to be concerned in them 5 
 and all this swearing is done on that book too, in which he has 
 commanded to *« sivear not at alU neither by Heaven, nor by tht 
 earth" — '* nor by any other oath. ! .'** 
 
 By such proceedings, it is altogether impossible that the 
 surrounding audience should not be corrupted ; that a proper 
 reverence for the sacred name of God, should not be gradually 
 lessened, or lost, and profanity encouiagcd. Yea, it is here 
 that our youth are often defiled : the sacred name of God im- 
 perceptibly steals upon the tongue, and they become adepts in 
 profanation,/ro7Ji lessons Jirst taught them at the bar of justice 1 ! 
 
 5. OF WAR. 
 
 « Te have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye^ 
 and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you^ that ije resist not 
 evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheeky turn 
 to him the other also. And if any man will sue tJiee at law, and 
 take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever 
 shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain, give to him that 
 which he asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, 
 turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou 
 shall love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy ; but I say unto 
 •yofUf love your enemies, bless them that curse you ; do good to 
 them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefuUy use you, 
 and persecute you, thai you may be the children of your Father 
 which is in Heaven, For he maketh the sun to rise on the evil 
 and on tlm good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 
 For if ye love them that love you, what reward have you? Do 
 not even the publicans the same ? And if ye salute your brethren 
 only, what do you more than others ? Do not even the publicans 
 so ? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in 
 Heaven is perfect," 
 
 The above is an abrogation not only of the paena talionis, 
 or a requital of injuries in the same kind, as established among 
 the Jews, but of every species of retaliation or resentment 
 whatever ; in confirmation whereof, this <' Wonderful Counsel- 
 lor" has left us, in his own conduct ** an example that we 
 should follow his steps, &c. who, when he was reviled, rt' 
 viled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not ; but com- 
 mitted himself to him that Judgeth righteously.*' 1 Peter ii. %i, 
 23, V 
 
194 
 
 The Apostles and primitive Christians for the first 300 
 years, taught the same precepts, and followed the example 
 which their divine Lord and master had set them, both as it 
 regards war and the use of oaths, as I have before shown. The 
 reader will find these facts fully confirmed in the writings of 
 Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, Lactantius, 
 Ambrose, Chrysostom, and a number of others. 1 he Empe- 
 ror Marc. Aur. Antonius, about 160 years after Christ, 
 writes thus: " I prayed to my country gods, but when I was 
 neglected by them, and observed myself pressed by the enemy, 
 considering the fewness of my forces, 1 called to one, and en- 
 treated those who with us are called Christians^ and 1 found a 
 great number of them, and I forced them with threats, which 
 ought not to have been, because afterwards I knew their 
 strength and force, therefore they betook themselves 7ieither to 
 the use of darts nor trumpets, for they used not so to do^for the 
 cause and name of their God, which they bear in their conscience.^' 
 Justin Martyr informs us that when required to fight, the an- 
 swer of the Christians was, " we fight not with our enemies :'* 
 and Sulpitius Severus, 300 years after Christ, relates the an- 
 swer of Martin, to Julian the apostate, ** J am a soldier of 
 Christ, therefore 1 cannot fight." Cyprian in his epistle to Do- 
 natus, says : <» when a single murder is committed, it shall be 
 deemed perhaps a crime, but tiiat crime shall commence a 
 virtue, when committed under the shelter of public authority, 
 80 that punishment is not rated by the measure of guilt, but 
 the more enormous the size of the wickedness is, so much the 
 greater is the chance of impunity." Lactantius says : «< It can 
 never be lawful for a righteous man to go to war, whose war- 
 fare is in righteousness itself." *' No exception can be made 
 with respect to this command of God. It can never be lawful 
 to kill a man, whose person the Divine Being designed to be 
 sacred as to violence." In short, that the primitive Chris- 
 tians, along with the apostles, renounced war in every shape, 
 adopting the precepts and example of the great head of the 
 church, is as well attested as any other historical fact. 
 
 It is not my design to enter here into a lengthy disquisition 
 on the subject of war. If you will not believe Christ and his 
 disciples, you « will not be convinced although one should 
 rise from the dead." War must be viewed as an anti-christian 
 practice, until it can be shown that to love our enemies, and 
 to hate and destroy them, are equivalent terms ; that the wea- 
 pons of Christians are not carnal, whilst warring with guns and 
 spears ; that you are crucifying the flesh with the lusts there- 
 of, whilst engaged in outward wars, which proceed " from 
 
1,^5 
 
 your lusts ;" that in thus fighting, you prove yourselves to be 
 of that kingdom which is not of this world, and subjects of that 
 king whose servants do notjight: that whilst you are murdering 
 your enemies, you are not giving place unto wrath, but return- 
 ing '* good for evil," and obeying the command of Christ, " If 
 thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thiist, give him drink ;" 
 in short, that whilst you are practising all the cunning devices, 
 and stratagems of war, you are walking in the paths of simpli- 
 city and truth ; exercising patience and forbearance whilst 
 glutting your vengeance, and bearing your cross whilst kil- 
 ling your fellow creatures ! ! ! 
 
 There is no passion more difficult to subdue, more tenaeeous of 
 life, than revenge. No lesson so hard to learn as that of for- 
 giveness of injuries: and hence the efforts of man to avoid the 
 way of the cross in this point, this essential part of the Gospel 
 system. Thus, as reasons in favour of war, we are told that 
 the Israelites made war on their enemies, as if Christian were 
 yet under the law. That self-defence is the first law of na- 
 ture, as if it was not the whole business of religion to subject 
 and bring our corrupt natures under the grace and spirit of 
 God : that John did not condemn war when the soldiers came 
 to him, as if John was to be our rule and guide, and not 
 Christ, &c. 
 
 In your Confession of Faith, ch. xxiii. 2. it is said that 
 *' Christians may lawfully now under the New Testament, 
 wage war upon just and necessary occasions ;" and the Pres- 
 byterian Parliament decreed, as I have before stated, that such 
 as questioned the soundness of this doctrine should be imjmson' 
 ed. 
 
 Now who is to decide what shall constitute a <<just and 
 necessary occasion" for war ? Fallible men : the party imme- 
 diately interested ! The Israelites were forbidden to fight only 
 when God commanded. Do Christians wait for, or seek after 
 the will or command of God before they go to war ? Far from 
 it. If they had done this, there never had been any fighting in 
 Christendom. 
 
 Wars deemed the most jwsf, have been as often unsuccessful 
 as otherwise : and on the contrary, those pronounced the most 
 wicked and iniquitous, have often been attended with prosperity 
 and success. The opinions of men, therefore, form no criterion 
 to decide on the case. But let us examine this subject as it 
 presents in practice; for doctrines are best tested by their 
 fruits. Let us suppose the question of war under the conside- 
 ration of the rulers of some Christian nation ; an awful questio 
 because involving, perhaps, the lives of a million of poor unr 
 
156 
 
 generate sinners ! What is the course taken ? The heathens 
 performed many superstitious rites, to discover the will of hea- 
 ven, or propitiate its favour. The Jews inquired by Urim, or 
 by Thuromim, or at the Oracle of God, to discover his will in 
 such an important case. How is this question determined by 
 Christians? Interest or policy turns the scale. Neither the fa- 
 vour nor the frowns of heaven, nor the lives of a million of 
 souls, nor the cries of the widow or the orphan, weigh a fea- 
 ther in the scale, against these two words. War is, therefore, 
 declared ; and now we see the priests, the ministers, the 
 professed teachers of that gospel which was ushered into the 
 world by " a multitude of the heavenly host, saying. Glory 
 to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good will towards 
 men." We behold this order of men active on the stage. They 
 are, no doubt, a strong phalanx on the side of peace — they 
 preach the Apostolic doctrine, that " the weapons of the Chris- 
 tians' warfare are not carnal** — that ♦» wars and fightings come 
 from our lusts*^ — They cite the commands of our Lord : *' for- 
 give injuries" — " love your enemies"—** return good for evil." 
 Be not mistaken : interest and policy weigh as heavy in the 
 modern balance of the priesthoods as in that of statesmen. 
 Hence even from the pulpit, we hear the sound of war ! war ! 
 The civil rulers have declared war to be '< just and necessary." 
 The theologically educated ministers reiterate it to the people, 
 and declare that the God of battles is with them ; armies are 
 raised on both sides, and prepare for the bloody conflict ! 
 
 It will readily be admitted that the individuals composing 
 an army, are, generally speaking, of all men the least prepared 
 for death. To be convinced of this truth, we need only enter 
 a camp. Here vice presents itself in every shape, and assumes 
 all its hideous deformities. There are, no doubt, here and 
 there, not a few, even in an army, who form exceptions to 
 these remarks ; but a camp is such an efficient school of vice, 
 that these are, in a short time, overwhelmed by the force of 
 example, and the enticing, and even coerciye means that are 
 used by their profligate companions, to corrupt and amalgamate 
 them. Such then are the materials of a CAmfia?! army; brought 
 together, and trained to the art of war, for war with Christians 
 is an art, or rather it is reduced to a science. 
 
 W^ now behold two opposing hosts in the presence of each 
 other. One more act performed, and the ** dreadful note of 
 preparation" is finished, and that is to address the God of battles : 
 for the Christian's God, it seems, is like the gods of Homer, fond 
 of carnal warfare, ** cruel, partial, and tivjust.^' Now are seen 
 throughoat the two camps, men, styled ministers of the gospel. 
 
157 
 
 on the bended knee, offering up prayers to heaven for victory 
 Baptists praying against Baptists ; Episcopalians against Epis- 
 copalians; Presbyterians against Presbyterians; approaching 
 the throne of grace and presenting opposite and contradictory 
 petitions to Almighty God ; thus making, if it were possible, a 
 party to their murderous quarrels, that Being who « is of purer 
 ©yes than to behold iniquity." 
 
 The following prayer, adapted to such an occasion as this, 
 is found in William Law's address to the clergy : ♦» O blessed 
 Jesus, dear redeeming Lamb of God, who comest down from 
 heaven to save men's lives, and not destroy them, go along, we 
 humbly pray thee, with our bomb-vessels and fire-ships, sufler 
 not our thundering cannon to roar in vain, but let thy tender 
 hand of love and mercy direct their balls to more heads and 
 hearts of thine own redeemed creatures, than the poor skill of 
 man is able of itself to do." 
 
 Now the battle commences. It is kill or le killed. All the 
 diabolical passions are up — but I avoid details ; a field of battle 
 is a Pandemenium — a hell upon earth. After some hours, some- 
 times days, one side gives way, and the other advances in pur- 
 suit ; the battle is won, and we now behold the fruits of your 
 doctrine, that war is lawful. The field of battle is drenched 
 with human blood, and thickly strewed with the wounded, the 
 dying and the dead ! ! From ten to fifty thousand have often in 
 this manner been hurried before the dread tribunal of Almighty 
 God, " with all their imperfections on their heads ;" and I leave 
 you to calculate how many millions have been thus despatched* 
 since the Westminster Confession has been in operation. 
 
 But the work is not yet completed. A grand te deum, or 
 thanksgiving remains to be said or sung for the glorious victory ; 
 and I offer the following for the use and benefit of your clergy. 
 « We thank thee, thou Preserver of men ; thou who hast com- 
 manded us to forgive our enemies, and to love them, and pray 
 for them ; we thank thee that thou hast this day nerved our 
 arms in battle, and thus enabled us to cut off from this proba- 
 tionary state, fifty thousand of our fellow-creatures, and to send 
 them to that placp prepared for unregenerated sinners. We 
 praise thee who didst send thy beloved Son into this world *' to 
 call sinners to repentance," and who declared that he " came 
 not to destroy men*s lives, but to save them" — to him we ascribe 
 the honour and the glory of this victory : it is he who has guided 
 our balls, and pointed our swords to the heads and hearts of 
 those whom he came to save ! — " And now we intercede on be- 
 half of those of our brethren who have fallen by our side, fight- 
 ing in thy glorious cause, with carnal weapons ; — are not these 
 
158 
 
 thine elect ?* Justify them, therefore, according to thine eternal 
 decree; they have kept owr faith; grant them, therefore, *a 
 crown of righteousness.' " 
 
 Such are the shocking inconsistencies involved in wars, 
 and fightings, both in theory and practice. They are the 
 offspring of our lusts, and our resentments, and these can have 
 no existence where the glorious gospel spirit prevails. The 
 man who yields to their impulse, creates a hell in his own bo- 
 som ; and instead of submitting his " cause to God, who judgeth 
 righteously f^"* takes it into his own hands, depends on the arm of 
 flesh, and is therefore, accursed. But it is asked, shall not a 
 man defend himself and his rights ? I answer, the Christian 
 has no country short of heaven ; he is but a sojourner here be- 
 low, and as to right, he knows none. He feels that all he hath 
 is of and from God alone. His life, his health, and his every 
 blessing is in the hands of his Creator, whose right therefore it 
 is to continue them unto him, or to take them from him, either 
 immediately or instrumentally as he may see meet ; in which it 
 is his duty to submit, believing that he who has numbered the 
 hairs of his head, if faithfully served, will cause every occur- 
 rence, every dispensation to work together for good to him, and 
 all those who love God, and obey him. 
 
 * Russel in his Mod. Eur. vol. iii. p. 413, states, that after the lost battle of 
 Dunbar, " the Covenanters reproacfied their God with the slaughteb of his 
 xiECT, and with DEGEiviNe thetn by false revelations.'!!" 
 
 flNIS. 
 
THE READER IS REqUESTED TO CORRECT THE FOLLOWING 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 
 
 11 line 14 from bottom, 
 
 , foi' rpeached. 
 
 read preached. 
 
 (( 
 
 29 
 
 « 
 
 3 from top. 
 
 IC 
 
 examplar. 
 
 (C 
 
 exemplar. 
 
 <( 
 
 31 
 
 <( 
 
 11 
 
 (( 
 
 <( 
 
 atsociate -with. 
 
 (( 
 
 associate with otherf. 
 
 <( 
 
 32 
 
 « 
 
 22 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 six thousand, 
 
 (( 
 
 six hundred. 
 
 (( 
 
 40 
 
 if 
 
 8 
 
 <( 
 
 <( 
 
 dissipatui 
 
 « 
 
 dissipantur. 
 
 <( 
 
 . 43 
 
 <( 
 
 12 
 
 « 
 
 « 
 
 naught, 
 
 tt 
 
 nothing. 
 
 <{ 
 
 45 
 
 « 
 
 6 
 
 (( 
 
 <( 
 
 he. 
 
 tt 
 
 we. 
 
 (( 
 
 47 
 
 C( 
 
 18 
 
 (( 
 
 <c 
 
 should. 
 
 tt 
 
 might. 
 
 •( 
 
 ib. 
 
 « 
 
 21 
 
 <i 
 
 <( 
 
 idol. 
 
 if 
 
 idle 
 
 i( 
 
 S3 
 
 « 
 
 18 
 
 " bottom, 
 
 (( 
 
 divinty. 
 
 tt 
 
 divinity. 
 
 <( 
 
 68 
 
 <( 
 
 15 
 
 (C 
 
 <( 
 
 lyeth. 
 
 tt 
 
 lieth. 
 
 (( 
 
 76 
 
 « 
 
 5 
 
 " top, 
 
 <( 
 
 reflected. 
 
 tt 
 
 reflects. 
 
 tt 
 
 83 
 
 « 
 
 6 
 
 <( 
 
 (( 
 
 quaUfy, 
 
 tt 
 
 to quaUfy. 
 
 u 
 
 84 
 
 « 
 
 9 
 
 " bottom, 
 
 « 
 
 naught. 
 
 tt 
 
 nought. 
 
 tt 
 
 85 
 
 <( 
 
 7 
 
 " top. 
 
 (( 
 
 object. 
 
 tt 
 
 grounds. 
 
 « 
 
 87 
 
 (( 
 
 14 
 
 « 
 
 (C 
 
 naught. 
 
 tt 
 
 nothing. 
 
 (( 
 
 97 
 
 t< 
 
 13 
 
 <( 
 
 (( 
 
 lucceeding. 
 
 tt 
 
 succeeded. 
 
 « 
 
 ib. 
 
 « 
 
 21 
 
 « 
 
 « 
 
 exciting. 
 
 It 
 
 exerting. 
 
 (( 
 
 98 
 
 <( 
 
 21 
 
 <( 
 
 (( 
 
 as. 
 
 tt 
 
 us. 
 
 « 
 
 107 
 
 « 
 
 13 
 
 <( 
 
 « 
 
 exortation. 
 
 tt 
 
 exhortation. 
 
 it 
 
 108 
 
 « 
 
 13 
 
 <f 
 
 (( 
 
 lav/s, 
 
 <c 
 
 lawn. 
 
 « 
 
 110 
 
 « 
 
 2 
 
 " bottom, 
 
 <( 
 
 of grades. 
 
 M 
 
 and grades. 
 
 << 
 
 181 
 
 « 
 
 6 
 
 <c 
 
 « 
 
 affords. 
 
 <c 
 
 afford. 
 
 <{ 
 
 135 at the hes 
 
 id of Letter VI 
 
 . WAR is omitted. 
 
 

rip' V 
 
ilfl 
 itOI 
 
 li 
 
 M 
 
 PROPOSALS, ^f 
 
 ^IQ 
 
 11 
 
 
 BY llOBEBT PORTEK WlLMLYGTOJ^r. 
 JOSEPH RAKEHTUAW, Frmter. 
 
 NO. 256, NORTH THIRD STRRET, 
 
 l'HII.\IISI.PHIA, 
 
 FOR REPUBLISHING BY SUBSCRIPTION, 
 
 ^m y\ni WW) fM ^55) ^ 
 
 
 OF 
 
 PAUL AXB AMICUS, 
 
 AS PUBLISHED IN THE CHRISTIAN REPOSITORY. 
 
 m 
 1 
 
 M 
 
 111 
 
 (if 
 
 ■'77 
 
 % 
 f 
 I 
 
 n 
 i 
 
 
 IT is perhaps scarcely necessai'y to premise, that this interesting discussion 
 commenced so far back as the early part of 1821, witii an Essay over the sig- 
 nature of "Paci," (in the Chhistiam- RisrostTOKy) charging the Society of 
 Friends with holding doctrines aud practices inimical to the principles of the 
 ■ Gospel, -■* contained in the Scriptur -:; of the Old and New Testarnent. These 
 charges were ably met, by another writer over the signature of " Asnecs." 
 Seldom have the productions of aaouymous writers excited a more lively inte- 
 rest than have these of "Paul" and "Amicus," especially among Presbyte- 
 rians and Friends. 
 
 No sooner had the discussion commenced in the Kepositoky, than the de- 
 mand for the paper began to increase, and continued increasing, until in six 
 mo 'ths, all the spare numbers, (which were considerable) wer^ taken up ; and 
 still a demand for more — this induced an early determination to reprJht the 
 whole, when brought to a close. Which period having now arrived,- we still 
 feel incUned to gratify the public, by laying before them these important 
 Essays at a veiy moderate price, in a form which may be conveniently read 
 and preserved, until time shall have tested their truth or fallacy. 
 
 This work will be printed on a new tvpe, fine durable paper, in one 8vo. 
 Vol. containing about 500 pages, executed hi the modern style, under the " 
 immediate insptrtion of the Authors, without note or alteration, fiirtbc"r than 
 literal corrections. 
 
 PHicB—Tfc Si.vicribers, gl 50 in boards. To non-subscribers, jg'^ 00,, 
 Persons obt:..ining i ek Subscribers, ..d becoiMing responsible fov the money, 
 to'havetlie e?<iventh gratis. 
 
 ICT" Subscriptions will he received as above, and at Warner's 
 Book Store, J\f'o. 171, Jlarki ' itreei. 
 
 :P-