Letters to a ; e;:;ber of . arliainent, on the present
of thinf>-s.

London, 18 54.

V

state

lg?4

LS(p

t 'i^'-

tETTERS

TO A

MEMBER GF PARLIAMENT,
ON •Sit§^\'' ,
IPre^ent Sitat^ of CDing^ :
THE' LAND, THE CHURCH, DISSENT, CHURCH REFORM,
" LIBERALISM, &c.
IN ttEFEKENCE Tb I
SCRIPTURE TRUTH.

LONDON:
JAMPS NISBET, BERNi»S STREET.
MDCCCXXXj!
Two Shill^^i^ and Sixpence.

LETTERS

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT,

PRESENT STATE OF THINGS.

LETTERS

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT,
ON THE
)|re0citt i^tate of ^^ing» :
THE LAND, THE CHURCH, DISSENT, CHURCH REFORM,
LIBERALISM, 8c.o.
*N RHKIiKRNCE TO
SCRIPTURE TRUTH.

' Who halli believed our report ? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?'"
Isaiah liii- I.

LONDON:
JAMES NISBET, BERNERS STREET.

MDfCCXXXIV.

PREFACE.

There never was a time when the
Church of Christ had greater need to look
back on first principles, which are the prin
ciples of God, than the present. Whatever
men may say in the pride of their self-wis-
domj which ever leads- them to live without
God in the world, God has revealed principles
for their government, in things political and
in things spiritual ; and woe will be to the
State, which rules without them, and to the
Church, which casts them off. The denial
of this truth is the canker of our professing
Churches, by which they will wither away
and die, and of our State, by which it will
be overthrown. The Lord, who is very
jealous for his glory, will ever vindicate
his own truths.

VI PREFACE.

Tlie writer of these pages luimbly begs,
that the reader will go through the whole
before he condemns any part, should he feel
led to do so in the progress of his reading ;
and that he would carry his views, and the
views of the writer, to the word of God,
searching for wisdom as for hid treasures.
And, above all, with a deep sense of the truth
of 1 Cor. viii. 2, he earnestly requests any
brother, who is led by the spirit of love and
faithfulness to correct those who err, to
communicate to him, in a letter to the Pub
lisher, corrections of any thing Avherein he
may have erred on points so awfully im
portant to the Church and the world as form
the subject matter of these pages, James
V. 19, 20.

CONTENTS.

LETTER I.

Introducti)

'¦.'/  .1
LETTER II.
Conduct and Sentiments of the House of Commons and the
Government, towards the Land—The £10. Householder Clause
in the Reform Bill— Distress of the Landed Interest . 4
LETTER III.
Petition for the Protection of the Church— Oneness of Faith
— Dissent from God's one Faith . . . .10
LETTER IV.
Dissent from. God's one Faith, continued — Sin of it— Illustra
tion of Sin of it, in reference to the Church of England, and
the National Jewish Church . . . , .20
LETTER V.
Eighth Chapter of Isaiah, in reference, prophetically and ti/pi-'
cally, to the Church of England and Dissenting Churches re
spectively — Sinfulness of Dissent, and Encouragement of
Dissent — Toleration — Liberalism of Dissent — Nature of it —
Land and Local Taxation . . . . .28
LETTER VI.
Grievances of Dissenters-~Nature and Character of League
against the Church — Public Registration of Births — Mar
riages of Dissenters — Scriptural Distinction as to the Ministry .39
LETTER VII.
Principles of the present Government — Burial of Dissenters ui
Church-yards by their own Ministers — Their Demand not lo
pay Church Rates— Their Demand of Admission lo the IJiii-
ri'isities — Con cction of C/ivrch O'lujcniiccf nr Almtcs . j.i

VUl CONTENTS.
LETTER VIII.
Scriptural Subordination — Unchangeableness of God in his
Principles in the Old Testament as in the New— Scriptural
Ministry — God's Election of his People under the Ministry
— Papal Ages— Mental or Educational Light, not Spiritual
Light — Definition of Dissent . . . .53
LETTER IX.
Reform of the Church — Object of it — Evil of Faithless Ministers
— Cause of it — Present System of Patronage of Livings
— Scriptural Principle of Appointment — Proposed Mode,
upon the Scriptural Principle — Re-modelling of the Epis
copacy . , . . . . .68
LETTER X.
Present System of Ordination — Proposed Reformation of it —
Evil of ' No Ministers' in Parishes — Cause of it — Proposed
Remedy of it — Lay-tithes — Cathedral Property — Ovei-grown
Livings. ... ... 79
LETTER XI.
Government Tithe Commutation Bill — Plunder of Church Pro
perty — Dissent indestructible— Universality of Faith — Pre
sent Dispensation one of Election — Future, one qf Univer
sality — Present State of the World, Society, Man — Last
Days — True Scriptural Reform undesired, and not to be
expected — Present Government, and their Reform Plans —
The Lord's Question — The Lord's Day . . 89
CONCLUSION.
Changes in the Ministry — Spirit of the Age — Exhortation to
the Children of God ¦ . . . , lO?

LETTERS

TO A

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT,

LETTER I.
Introductory.

My dear  ,
I HAVE received a petition on Agricultural dis
tress from my people of  , to put into
your hands for presentation to the House of
Commons, and I shall have great pleasure in
forwarding it to you, on receiving your instruc
tions as to where I shall send it. A petition
of the like kind, from the parish of  ,
is committed to  , and the petitioners
wish me to request you to give it your support
when it is presented. I shall perhaps send you
one or two petitions for the Church, deploring
the wrong and unscriptural practices in its out
ward administration, and deprecating the prin
ciples of liberalism, which will destroy and

not reform it, their natural tendency and object,
however unseen, being to destroy.
The power, which is pulling down the church,
is the power which is pulling down the land, and
vice versa. It is the same power, putting itself forth
with especial strength in our towns and manufac
turing districts, and sending up the shout in
Parliament, and out of it, ' down with them, down
with them, even to the ground.' God has made
you in your place in society one of the natural
protectors of both .
I grieve over the desolation of our villages
and hamlets, temporal and spiritual, with which
they are threatened by godless and commer
cial liberalism. Men out of covetousness, which
is idolatry, worship the Baal of commerce.
God, who abhorreth the covetous, and has no
pleasure in the riches of men, recognises the
soil of a country, as its natural and proper
subsistence and strength. And therefore, al
though he may deliver the church, in which are
his truths, and the land, which is his especially
recognised gift, into the hands of their enemies
for their sins and make them desolate, as he
did Jerusalem, yet most assuredly, in the end,
he will avenge them of their enemies, for their
enemies are His, Ps. cxxxyii. 7 — 9, " Remem
ber, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day
of Jerusalem, who said, Rase it, rase it, even to
the foundation thereof; O daughter of Baby
lon, who art to be destroyed, happy shall he

be, that rewardeth thee as thou hath served us —
happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy
little ones against the stones." And so we
see, as an historical fact of all ages, that there
was never a country which sacrificed its own
soil for the fluctuating and baseless wealth of
commerce, but what has been at last ruined or
swept away. The sin of cities and commercial
countries is written out in Ezekiel xvi. 49, 50,
" Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister
Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of
idleness was in her, and in her daughters,
neither did she strengthen the hand of the
needy, and they were haughty and committed
abomination before me." And mark the end —
"Therefore I took them away as I saw good."
Believe me, &c.

B 2

LETTER II.
Conduct and Sentiments of the House of Commons and the Govern
ment towards the Land — The £10. Householder Clause in the
Reform Bill — Distress of the Landed Interest.
I send you the  Agricultural petition,
and thank you in the name of the petitioners
for the readiness, with which you have been
kind enough to take charge of it.
You must allow me to take the agricultural
question out of the position, in which you have
placed it in your letter, as a party question,
certainly at least as far as I am concerned. I
join in no war cry against the present Govern
ment, or against any Government. As a ques
tion of mere politics, I would not have touched
it, having nothing to do with politics, except
where and so far as the eternal truths of God
are affected. But the question is positively
the very existence of the agricultural community,
threatened as it is with utter desolation by the
aggressions of evil men and evil principles; and
I cannot but again express my grief over the
miseries fast coming, or at least attempted to
be inflicted, on the various grades of indivi
duals connected with the land, bound to them as
I am by the strongest ties, natural and spiri
tual, and believing, as I do, that the most of
what is really good in our land, is to be found,

as a general proposition, not in the towns and
cities, but in the villages and hamlets. Still
when you say, that there is no ground for appre
hension, that the Legislature is willing to sa
crifice the interests of the land to those of com
merce, and that the conduct and sentiments of
the present government have not warranted any
such apprehension, I am sorry to be compelled
to differ toto ccelo with you.
The Legislature, as far as regards the House
of Commons, which, I fear, may now be pretty
well considered the whole of the Legislature,
abounds with men of worse principles and
wilder notions on all subjects, let in by the Re
form Bill, than in any Parliament since the
memorable one in Cromwell's time. The £ 10.
Householder Clause has given the preponderance
of representation to men of evil principles and
wild notions, in the towns and cities, and they
naturally send men of their own kind. This,
and the addition of great towns to the represen
tation, combined with the usual influx into the
House of men of bad and of no principles, and
the madness of party, are the causes at work
to render the Lower House the destroyer of all
good, and the setter up of all evil; and there
fore, with respect to the question before us,
the destroyer of the country interests which are
good, and the setter up of the trading and town
interests which are bad. To the£lO. Householder
Clause are to be ascribed all the evils which are

6
coming on the country ; and as the Reform Bill
works on, and the power that wrought out the Re
form Bill works on, this will become more and
more manifest. I told Lord  so at the time,
and I am compelled to say so still. Here and
there the evil effects of it as to the towns will be
neutralized, as at  , and  , where the power
in the villages, which is conservative, will rise
up, when questions call for it, such as church
or no church, land or trade, and beat down the
power in the towns, which is destructive. But
the great working of it in the mass will be most
assuredly evil, and overpowering in evil.
And then as to the present Government. The
pOM'^er, with which they are connected and on
which they stand, is that in the towns, — the
godless and ignorant liberalism of the towns,
ignorant of true principles, because godless.
The great principle of their rule is obedience to
the people, the godless and ignorant principle
of Vox populi Vox Dei; and as they call the
" mad multitude" in towns The People, they
obey the voice of the mad multitude, the civium
ardor pi^ava jubentium, for the cives ever did
and ever will command evil things. Witness
the conduct and language of Sir John Camp
bell at Dudley, and of Dr. Lushington in and
out of Parliament. — And then the Government
themselves are Liberals ; and though it is true,
that they do not as yet go with liberalism to its
full extent (and therefore as liberalism advances

' *v.._.,.,„...,'

in power and lust of domination, it will unques
tionably sweep them away, unless they advance
with it), still they go far enough with it now to
do its preparatory work. This as to their sen
timents. Then as to their conduct. Lord Althorp pledged
himself at the beginning of the Session, that
the Government, which you know means in par
liamentary language the whole of Government,
would not only not propose, but would oppose
any motion on the corn laws, which should have
for its object or effect the injury of the landed
interest ; and yet when the trial of his Lordship's
pledge came on upon Mr. Hume's motion, nine
of them out of twenty in the House voted for it,
and some spoke for it. Couple this with the
remission of the House tax to the trading and
town interests, by which one great manufac
turing town alone, rolling in riches, is said to
have £10,000 given to it, and with the continual
efforts which the politico-economists among
them, as Mr. Poulett Thompson and others, are
making against the litde conservativeness yet
remaining, and there is exhibited to my mind
the clearest possible indication both of the prin
ciples above mentioned in the Government, and
their preference of the trading and monied and
town interests to the landed. And indeed I
must say generally, that, if there were in the
House or in the Government that high and
healthy feeling concerning principles, which

8
used to be there, and which is after all the best
security for good political conduct, such men as
Mr. O'Connell, Mr. J. Wilks, Mr. D. W. Har
vey, et id genus omne, would not be suffered to
take the lead they do, and the House would not
be of the fallen character it is. But Liberalism,
which means freedom in evil principles dnd evil
things, bears, like every other tree, its own
proper fruit.
I cannot enter into the detail of the taxes to
be taken off, though I am disposed to concur
with you on that head. But I am very sorry
not to be able to agree with you as to the amount
of relief likely to be derived to the land from the
points you speak of. I cannot help looking at
it as altogether inadequate, and unimportant,
and in no degree meeting the existing distress.
The distress of the landed interest is resolvable
into two causes — the burdens on the land, and
the inadequacy of the returns from the land
to sustain the burdens. The remedy, therefore,
is either to raise the price of the produce
adequately, which, perhaps, is neither desirable
nor practicable, or to take off the burdens
adequately. This latter alternative can only be
effected by relieving the land entirely of the
poor rates, road rates, and county rates, and
throwing them on the State, and providing for
them out of the general taxation of the country,
or by a tax for the purpose on real and other
property. The burden thus spread over the

9
whole of the wealth of the country, would be
felt but little by individuals — the land would be
effectually and instantly relieved — and the manu
facturing and trading interests, which are con
fessedly rich and flourishing, and are protected
by very high duties, and create much of the
pauperism that presses on the land, would be
brought to bear an equitable share of the bur
den. No relief short of this will be adequate,
and it could be effected by a simple and well
digested plan, without difficulty.
And now allow me first to commend the poor
 ¦ petitioners, who have entrusted their case
to you, to your sympathy, and then to entreat
your kindness and pardon for this letter.
And believe me, &c.

10

LETTER III.
Petition for the Protection of the Church — Oneness of Faith-
Dissent from God's One Faith.
To save time I send you a copy of the Pe
titions for the protection of the Church. The
Petitions themselves are not yet ready. If
there should be any thing in the principle which
runs through the petition, or in the inferences
drawn from it, to prevent you from giving it
your support (which I do not anticipate), I am
sure that neither the Petitioners nor myself
would wish you to force your conscience out of
kindness to us— at the same time they would
not like the petition to be taken charge of by
any member who would feel himself compelled
to say that he differed from it, though they
would wish it to be presented by you. The
Petition is as follows : —

THE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED HEADS OF FAMILIES AND
OTHERS, INHABITANTS OF , IN THE COUNTY
OF , AND DIOCESE OF
HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That your Petitioners are sincerely attached to the doc
trines, ordinances, ministry, and establishment of the Church of
England, believing them to be founded on the Word of God ;
and that, while they deplore any and all wrong or unscriptural
practices in its outward and temporal administration, or mode of
administration, and are desirous of the correction of any and all

11
such in a right manner, and upon right principles, they lament
the prevalence of the sanction and encouragement of dissent.
They lament it as evil in itself, inasmuch as the principle of
dissent from a church, in which, as your Petitioners believe and
feel, the truths of God are embodied and set forth for the sal
vation of men, is opposed to the principle of the oneness of faith,
which is the principle of the Word of God. They lament it as
evil in its consequences, inasmuch as it involves the sanction and
encouragement of errors and heresies the most awful. Your
Petitioners, therefore, earnestly deprecating a principle which
tends to foster heresy and error, most earnestly deprecate any
change in the constitution of the Church of England, tending in
the remotest degree to weaken its efficiency, betray it into the
hands of its enemies, injure it in its character and office as a
national church, or deprive your Petitioners and others of the
benefits they derive from its ministrations. And they most
solemnly implore your Honourable House not to sanction the
introduction of any measures which have such a change for their
object, avowed or secret — the more particularly as your Peti
tioners, being inhabitants of a poor and retired village, and with
out the means of providing themselves with public religious wor
ship, would be thereby left entirely without any, as would be
also a great proportion of the villages of the kingdom.
The principle of the petition is that of the one
ness of faith. God requires all his accountable
creatures to receive the truths of his revealed
will, and allows none to dissent from them.
Man has neither the right nor the power to exact
unconditional obedience from his fellow-man to
any mode of salvation. But God has both ;
and the salvation or damnation of every human
being, to whom the will of God comes, turns on
his obedience or disobedience to the truths of
that will — and God does not, and cannot, allow

12
any of the pleas, such as of conscience, or sin
cerity, or expediency, which men set up in justi
fication of their refusal to receive them, or, in
other words, of their dissent from them. God,
who knows the secrets of man's heart, which
man knows not,* sees nothing in these pleas
but pride, and self-will, and unbelief, and the
enmity of the natural man to him ; the things,
which led Cain to refuse God his required wor
ship, and to offer one thing when he commanded
another;! — and which led the children of Israel
* " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked — who can know it?" — Jer. xvii. 9.
t Gen. iv. 3 — 7. — " And in process of time it came to pass,
that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the
Lord, and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock,
and of the fat thereof; and the Lord had respect unto Abel,
and to his offering : but unto Cain and to his offering he had not
respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell ;
and the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth ? and why is
thy countenance fallen ? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be
accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." —
Heb. xi. 4. " By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was
righteous, God testifying of his gifts : and by it he being dead
yet speaketh." — Cain is a remarkable instance, or rather type, of
dissent from the truth and will of God, founded upon some of
the plausible deceivings of man's heart. After the fall, God
established sacrificial atonements by blood, as figures of the
atonement by the blood of Christ — " without shedding of blood
is no remission," Heb. ix. 22. This was his decree, his will,
his truth. Cain refused to receive it and dissented from it, and
no doubt gave God and Abel many a plausible reason for his

13
to reject the ministry and order of worship Avhich
God had established for them, and in disobedi
ence to set up a ministry and an order of wor
ship of their own, upon the plea of holiness in
themselves and their schismatic ministers.*
God has therefore estahlished one faith for all
his human creatures, " there is  one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
dissent. He would say, ' That it was cruel to take away the
life of animals, and absurd to imagine that God would be
pleased with cruelty ; that he did not believe but that God
would accept his offering of the fruit of the ground, if he offered
it with a sincere heart; and that God allowed every man to
worship him according to his conscience.' Cain disbelieved and
dissented, and these wduld be among his reasons for his dis
obedience, and his offering was rejected, because, although he
worshipped, his worship was sinful, being offered in unbelief.
Abel believed and obeyed, and the Lord had respect unto his
offering, because " by faith Abel offered unto God ... by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous."
* Numb. xvi. 3, 9 — 11. — "And they gathered themselves
together against Moses, and against Aaron, and said unto them,
Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are
holy every one of them, and the Lord is among them : wherefore
then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord ?
. . . Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel
hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you
near to himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord,
and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them?
And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the
sons of Levi with thee ; and seek ye the priesthood also ? For
which cause both thou, and all thy company are gathered to
gether against the Lord : and what is Aaron that ye murmur
against him ?" — And just mark the cry of liberalism that came

14
all," Eph. iv, 5. Yes, because his attribute
is Oneness, " one God," and they, who dissent
from his one faith, deny and break his oneness,
and make " Gods many and Lords many,"
while to his blessed people " there is but one
God, the Father, of whom are all things, and
they in him," 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6. Now no man
may do this. No man may refuse to believe
God. No man may make Him, who is Truth,
a liar.* No man may break and deny his one
ness. No man may make Gods many and Lords
many. The inference is irresistible. No man may
dissent from God's one faith, and thus make
faiths many and Gods many. Dissent from it
is sin, awful, God-denying sin. It may be wil
ful unbelief, the result of a proud, self-exalting
spirit, to which " there remaineth no more sacri
fice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation, which shall
up from two of the schismatic ministers. Their ambition was
not satisfied with their proper line of ministering, but they desired
the priesthood also, ver. 10., as the pride of the congregation
could not bear the ministers to have rule and be over them in the
Lord, but claimed to be equal with them in authority in the
church, as they said they were in holiness, ver. 3. And when
Moses sent for them to come to him, the reply was an appeal to
the enlightened state of the people, and an avowal of their own
rebellion — «' wilt thou put out the eyes of these men ? we will
not come up."— Vex. 14.
* " He that believeth not God hath made him a liar." —
I John V. 10.

devour the adversaries"^ to " the truth" known but
rejected, Heb. x. 26, 27 ; or it may be unbelief,
the result of ignorance, to which pardon may be
vouchsafed, and from which conversion may be
granted, as in Paul's instance, 1 Tim. i. 13. But
in either case it is sin, awful, God-denying sin.
Therefore it is, that the Holy Ghost is con
tinually forbidding in the Scriptures, in the most
solemn and the plainest language, dissent from
the one faith, schism in the one body. Read some
of his words : —
Gal. i. 8, 9, " But though we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you, let him
be accursed, as we said before so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed" — not, let him with his Christ-denying
heresy have the right hand of fellowship given
to him as a preacher of the Lamb, and be taken
to platforms and set forth to speak to the peo
ple, but let him be accursed.—Kom.. xvi. 17, 18,
" Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them
which cause divisions and offences contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them,
for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus
Christ, but their own belly, and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the
simple"^ — not, foster and patronize them, and
call their perversenesses * grievances,' but mark
them, see through them, and avoid them^-not,

10
think that they are serving Christ, but that they
are loving filthy lucre and gratifying worldly
ambition, " the lust of the flesh and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life," and by plausible
professions deceive sincere and simple-minded
men. — 2 Tim. ii. 16 — 18, " But shun profane
and vain babblings, for they will increase unto
more ungodliness, and their word will eat as
doth a canker, of whom are Hymeneus and
Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred . . .
and overthrow the faith of some " — not, cherish
profane and vain babblings, but shun them-— not,
think that they can be of benefit to man, but
that they will increase unto mot^e ungodliness —
not, think that the word of the babblers can do
good, but that it will eat out all good as doth a
canker, and that the babbler will err concerning
the truth and will overthrow the faith of others. —
Tit. iii. 10, 11, "A man that is a heretic, after
the first and second admonition reject, knowing
that he that is such is subverted and sinneth,
being condemned of himself" — not, caress and
flatter him in his soul-destroying heresy, but
reject him — not, call him a Christian, but know
and say in all faithfulness that he is subverted
and sinneth, and is condemned in himself. —
1 Tim. vi. 3 — 5, " If any man teach otherwise
and consent not to wholesome words, even the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the
doctrine which is according to godliness, he is
proud, knowing nothing, but doting about ques-

17
tions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy,
strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse dis-
putings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of
the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, /rom
such ivithdraw thyself' — not, think such an one
a well-instructed, humble, peaceable, good
man, knowing Christ the Truth, and so attach
yourself to him, but withdraw yourself from
him. — 2 John 10, 11, " If there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive
him not into your house, tieither bid him God
speed, for he that biddeth him God speed, is
partaker of his evil deeds" — not, give him the
word of brotherhood and receive him as one of
the household of faith, but reject him and avoid
him as an evil doer, or you will be partaker of his
evil deeds.— 1 Tim. i. 19, 20, " Holding faith
and a good conscience, which some having put
away concerning faith have made shipwreck, of
whom are Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I
have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn
not to blaspheme"— not, calling them disciples of
Christ, because they may profess to receive some
of his doctrines, but holding them to be children
of Satan, whose deeds as his children they do,
and cutting them off from all fellowship with
the church.— Col. ii. 8, " Beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world, and not after Christ," and 1 Tim. vi. 20,21,
" O Timothy, keep that which is committed to
c

thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings,
and oppositions of science, falsely so called,
which some professing, have erred concerning
the faith;'' not, attend and support and glory
in the delusions and impieties of self-conceited
philosophy, the ignes fatui of false and carnal
science, dazzling and deceiving a world lying
in wickedness, (such as, in our day, the Me
chanics' Institutes, and the London University,)
which are after the tradition of men, and not
after Christ ; but beware of them, and avoid
them, lest they should cause you to err con
cerning the faith. — Tit. i. 10, 11, " For there
are many unruly and vain talkers and de
ceivers, .... whose mouths must be stopped,
who subvert whole houses, teaching things
which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake ;"
not, whose mouths must be let loose with a
free tongue and a free press, but whose unruly
talkings, and vain deceivings, and teachings
of things which they ought not for filthy lucre's
sake, should be stopped. — 2 Tim. ii. 21, " If a
man, therefore, purge himself from these (pro
fane and vain babblers, vessels of dishonour,)
he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and
meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto
every good work ;" not, thinking to do the Lord
service by joining with profane and vain bab
blers, hut, by purging himselffrom tliem, becoming
a vessel sanctified and meet for his Lord's use,
and prepared for every good work in which bis

19
Lord has ordained that he should walk. — Read,
also, the Lord's truths in J Tim. iv. 1— 3 ; 2 Pet.
ii. 1—3 ; Jude 18, 19, &c. &c. &c.
Having entered thus fully into the subject
so far, I will go on with it, if you permit me.
And may we remember, that these are not the
speakings of man, but of the everlasting Je
hovah ; even the word of God effectually work
ing in them that believe', and scattering to the
winds the flimsy cavillings of them that be
lieve not! Praying that the blessings of that
God may be with you for time and eternity,
Believe me, &c.

c 2

20

LETTER IV.
Dissent from God's One Faith continued — Sin of it — Illustration
of Sin of it in reference to the Church of England and the National
Jewish Church.
Therefore it is — to carry on the truth in the
last letter — that the Holy Ghost is continually
commanding, in the Scriptures, oneness of
faith, one mind, and one mouth. Bead some
of his words.
1 Cor, i. 10, " Now, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye
all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly
joined together in the same mind, and in the same
judgment;'' not setting it forth to be good, or
conducive to good, as men are continually
saying, that they, who are called by the name
of the Lord Jesus, should differ in opinion on
the things of God and salvation, and in their
worship of the one God in Christ, and have
divisions, {ayi^fiara, schisms,) among each other,
but that they should be perfectly, not loosely
and imperfectly, so that the least thing will
sever the tie of union, but strongly, closely,
perfectly, in all things joined together in the
same mind and judgment. — 2 Cor. xiii. 11, " Be
perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live
in peace ;" not, be of twenty, or ten, or two

21
minds and faiths, but of one mind and one
faith, that ye may be complete in all things,
and maybe able to comfort one another with
the same comfort, which is in Jesus, and may
live in the love and the peace of the one
truth, as it is in Jesus.— Phil. ii. 2, 3, " Fulfil
ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind,
let nothing be done through strife or vain
glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem
other better than themselves ;" not, fulfil ye my
joy by evil speakings against each other, and
by differences in judgments and opinion, but by
being of the same mind, (to ev ^povavTE?, thinking
the one thing,) and having the same love ; for
it is by differences ia mind, that envy and
strife, and vain glory, and a spirit of self-
exalting Pharisaism, are engendered, and all
the evil doings that spring from them. — 2 Tim.
i. 13, " Hold fast the form of sound words,
which thou hast heard of me, in faith and
love which is in Christ Jesus ;" not, hold it
loosely, and drop first one truth and then an
other, but hold it fast, and keep it in faith and
love. — Tit. i. 9, " Holding fast the faithful
word, as he hath been taught, that he may be
able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and
to convince the gainsayers ;" not, giving it up
by compromise, or fear of man, or self-seeking,
or out of complaisance to erring brethren, but
holding fast the faithful word — ^^not, yielding to

22
gainsayers, and fearful of speaking the truth
to them, but by holding fast the word in faith
fulness, be able to exhort and convince them —
not, conceding it to ignorant men and cavillers,
and thus helping to keep sinners in the snares
of Satan, but holding it fast, and setting it
forth, and thus winning souls to Christ. — 1 Pet.
iii. 8, " Finally, be ye all of one mind ;" not,
all of one communion be of one mind, but all
of the body of Christ , not huilding schism
after schism, and chapel after chapel, of divers
toinds and doctrines, but be ye all of one
mind and one faith. ^See also the Lord's truths
in Jude 20 ; Col. ii. 7 ; Rom. xv. 6 ; Acts ii. 46 ;
&c. &c. &c.
If these things be so, surely the principle
which follows from them, is undeniable, that
dissent from a church, in which the truths of
God are embodied and set forth for the sal
vation of men, is sinful— not because it is
dissent from that church, but because it is
dissent from the truths in it, thereby breaking
the oneness of faith, which God requires of all
men.' Is it not so? With the Bible in our
hands, and taking it as the test of truth, it is
impossible to say that it is not. The only ques
tion, then, for consideration is, Are the truths
of God embodied in the Church of England,
and set forth in it for the salvation of men ?
The question is not. Are there no corruptions
and abuses and evil things in the Church of

23
England ? There may be many, and there
are many — they may be grievous, and they
are grievous — they may cry unto God for
judgment, if they be not corrected, and they do
cry out for judgment, if correction come not.
The question is not. Are there no evil ministers
and evil men in the Church of England?
There may be many, and there are many — they
may have departed out of the way, ministers
and people, and they have departed out of
the way — they may have caused many to
stumble at the law, and they have caused it —
they may have corrupted the covenant of the Lord,
and they have corrupted it. The evil things and
evil men in it may have done much to obscure
the light of God's spiritual day, and they have
done much; and they have stood between the
people and the sun of the gospel world, and
intercepted many of his glorious rays. But
all this does not warrant sin, the sin of dissent
and schism. It warrants the calling out for
reformation, for amendment of ways, for re
turn to the Lord, for primitive purity of ad
ministration. But it does not warrant sin,
the sin of dissent and schism from the na
tional church, if the truth and ordinances of
God be there.
And so our blessed Lord taught in the days
of his flesh concerning the then national
church, the Jewish. What church was ever
so corrupt and evil and apostate as the Jewish,

24
even going on in its wickedness to the cruci
fying of the Lord of Life and Glory ? And
yet our Lord worshipped in its temple and
taught in it. — What church ever called down
upon it woes more awful, for wickedness more
awful, than the Jewish, to which our Lord said
at the conclusion of his woeful charges against
it, " Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how
can ye escape the damnation of hell ?" Matt.
xxiii. And yet he commanded his disciples,
not to secede from it and band together to
pull it down, but to worship in it, because
it was still the God-appointed church, saying,.
" The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses'
seat, all therefor-e whatsoever they bid you ob
serve, that observe and do," Ver. 1. — Whatchurcb
ever hated Christ so much as the Jewish ?
And yet when they sat in council to consider
of measures against him upon his miracle of
raising Lazarus from the dead, the Spirit of
prophecy was poured out upon Caiaphas, not
because of the honour God put upon the
man, for he was our Lord's murderer, but be
cause of the honour he would put upon the
office, for he was the High Priest, John xi-
49 — 51. God's rule is the reverse of ours —
we make too much of the man and too little
of the office, whereas God makes much of
the office, because the office is under all
circumstances of his appointment, and little
of the man, because the man may or may

not be his in the sense of adoption. — What
church ever pursued the followers of the cru
cified One with so much malignity as the
Jewish? And yet, after he ascended to his
Father, they that were with him returned to
Jerusalem, and were continually in the Jewish
Temple, praising and blessing God, Luke xxiv.
52. And yet after the day of the pouring out
of the Spirit, the believers in the Christ, whom
by wicked hands the Jews had crucified and
slain, continued daily with one accord in the
Jewish Temple, Acts ii. 46. And yet Paul,
who had received his gospel in an especial
manner, by the revelation of Jesus, Gal. i.
11, 12, and was in an especial manner in
structed in his Lord's will, observed the out
ward forms of the Jewish law, and walked
" orderly" in it, and worshipped in the Jewish
Temple, Acts xxi. 24 — 27. And yet, when Paul
was smitten contrary to the law at the Jewish
council, by command of the Jewish High Priest^
and answered him with an impatient unad
vised word, in ignorance of his being the High
Priest, he reproved himself for his sin in so
speaking, when he knew to whom he had so
spoken, and acknowledged his authority, say
ing, •' I wist not, brethren, that he was the
High Priest, for it is written, Thou shalt not
speak evil of the ruler of thy people," Acts xxiii.
2 — 5. Why ? Even because the Jewish church
was the God-appointed national church, as

26
long as God spared it, which was till he swept
it away in his anger, at the destruction of
Jerusalem. And so is it with the national church in this
land. It will be swept away at last in the
Lord's wrath, because of its sins, but cor
ruptions and abuses and evil practices in its
outward administration can never make it other
than God's church, if and as long as it con
tains God's truths and ordinances, and none
may leave it of his own self-will, while its day
of grace continues, and none may sanction the
leaving it in another. I say, of his own self-
will. When our blessed Lord gave out his
last affecting exhortations to his sorrowing
disciplos, the evening before the crucifixion,
he said to them, " they shall put you out of the
synagogues," John xvi. 2. He did not tell
them to put themselves out, or to teach others
so. But they were to bear witness to him and
for him under the power and teaching of the
Spirit, XV. 26, 27, in the national church, and
leave it to the Jews to put them out. So is it
now. The believers in Jesus are to bear
witness to him and for him in the church — they
are to be his witnesses in the church — leaving
it to the church in its apostasy, should its
apostasy grow thereto, to put them out. But
they may not leave it of their own self-will,
nor sanction such leaving it in others, for it is
still God's church in the land.

27
Here I would leave the argument for the
present, praying that God the Holy Ghost may
graciously please to bring out the truth to the
glory of the Father, and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Head of the Church.
Believe me, &c. &c.

28

LETTER V.
Eighth Chapter of Isaiah, in reference, prophetically and typically,
to the Church of England and Dissenting Churches, respectively —
Sinfulness of Dissent, and Encouragement of Dissent — Toleration
— Liberalism of Dissent — Nature of it — Land and Local Tax
ation. The question, then, is, not of the corruptions
and evil practices in the outward adminis
tration of the Church of England. The ques
tion will allow of the admission, nay, of the
assertion of corruptions and evil practices,
even to the guilt of the Jewish church, nay
even beyond it, and yet stand where it does.
Under this assertion, all the sons and daughters
of the Church of England are bound by love
and duty and in all tenderness to seek her
purification, to pray for it, to struggle for it,
to help it on, and woe will be to her if she does
not purify herself. But none may leave her —
none may destroy her — none may lift his heel
against her, as Judas, for a sin of which kind
God smote him with the madness of self-
murder* — none may mock her sins and naked-
* Psalm xli. 9, " Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I
trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against
me." — John xiii. 18, "I speak not of you all: I know whom 1
know whom I have chosen : but that the scripture may be ful
filled. He that eatelh bread ivilh me hath lifted up his heel
against m,e."

29
ness, as Ham, for a sin of which kind God
gave over his posterity to perpetual slavery*' —
none may join the league of antichrist against
her — nay, none may join any leagues for her
or against her, but the Lord's. And the mes
sage the Lord sends to them, if they can read
it, is written out for them in Isa. viii. 11 — 16,
" For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong
hand, and instructed me that I should not walk
in the ivay of this people, saying, Say ye not, A
Confederacy, to all them to whom this people
shall say, A Confederacy ; neither fear ye their
fear, nor be afraid : sanctify the Lord of hosts
himself; and let him be your fear, and lot him
be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary ;
but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of
offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and
for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And
many among them shall stumble, and, fall, and
be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind
up the testimony, seal the law among my dis
ciples." Indeed this 8th chapter of Isaiah is a typical

* Genesis ix. 22,24 — 27, " And Ham, the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren
without .... And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his
younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be
Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And
he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan shall
be his servant. God shall enlarge Japhelh, and he shall dwell
in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant."

30
prophecy of the last days, in which the King
of Assyria, who is here the type of the Infidel
Antichrist of the last days, shall come up with
all his glory, and pass through and fill with the
stretching out of his wings all the breadth of
Immanuel's land, which is Christendom, ver. 7, 8.
And the word is, that he shall break it to
pieces, ver. 9, 10. And the command is to the
children of God, that they shall not join in any
confederacy which the professing churches may
set up against Antichrist, when they begin to
see something of his true character, and tremble
over it, ver. 11 — 13. The houses of Israel, in
ver. 14, to both of whom the Lord shall be for a
stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence,
while he shall be a sanctuary to his blessed rem
nant, are prophetic types of the national church
and the dissenting churches respectively. The
house of Judah, worshipping in the appointed
national temple at Jerusalem, is the type of the
national church ; and the house of Israel,
or Samaria, which separated from Judah, and
worshipped not in the national temple, but
sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places,
contrary to the Lord's command, in Deut. xii.
13, 14, 21, under good kings as well as bad
(see 2 Kings xii. 2, 3, as well as 1 Kings xii.
26—33, and also John iv. 9, 20), is the type of the
dissenting churches. Both shall equally, in the
end, go off from the Lord in apostasy ; and the
Head-stone of the corner, the Lord Jesus, shall

31
be to them both, although they shall in pro
fession call themselves by his name, a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offence, and they
shall stumble at his word, being disobedient and
appointed thereunto (1 Pet. ii. 7, 8), and " many
(the many) among them shall stumble and fall
and be broken, and be snared, and be taken,"
ver. 15. But the testimony shall be bound up,
and the law sealed to the Lord's latter-day
remnant of true disciples, ver. 16, who shall
wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from
his outward churches, and look for him in his
glorious appearing, ver. 17, and be for signs
and wonders to the people from the Lord of
Hosts, ver. 18. The people of the outward
churches shall seek to their enchanters and
popular preachers who peep into the Lord's
covenant and oracles, but have no clear sight
of them, and who mutter only indistinct things
concerning the Lord's purposes, and give out
no certain intelligible tidings and warnings,
and shall enquire of them what the Lord says
ver. 19, but they shall not speak according to
this word of the law and the testimony, be
cause there is no light in them, ver. 20; and
they shall pass through this word and get no
food from it, and they shall fret themselves
because they can get no food from this word,
and shall curse their king and their God, and
shall look in their blindness to heaven and
earth, expecting great joy and light from both.

32
but behold trouble and darkness, dimness qf
anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness,
ver. 21, 22. — Awful end of the professing
teachers and people of the outward churches
in the present time, which is the time of the
last days ! To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? To those, and only to those, who
with the Lord's Spirit search the Lord's pro
phecies for his revealed tidings of the last days.
All others shall go off into some one of the
manifold heresies of the last days; and as
they speak not according to this word, be
cause there is no light in them, even so shall
the day of the Lord be darkness to them and
no light. Of them distinctively and especially
is it written, " Woe unto you that desire the
day of the Lord (which they are ever professing
to do)! to what end is it for you ? the day of the
Lord is darkness, and not light ; as if a man
did flee from a lion, and a bear met him, or
went into the house, and leaned his hand on the
wall, and a serpent bit him — shall not the day
of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even
very dark, and no brightness in it," Amos v.
18—20. The question, then, is not. Are there no cor
ruptions or evil practices, or evil ministers or
evil men in the Church of England? But, Are
the truths and ordinances of God embodied in
her, and set forth for the salvation of men ?
If we are fully persuaded in our own mind in

33
the affirmative ; if the blessings in her and
from her and by her — if her Bible (in contra
distinction to the Papists* Bible and the So-
cinians' Bible) — if her ministers of God's ap
pointed line and order from the days of Paul,
(in contradistinction to ministers of man's ap
pointment, Heb. V. 4, 5,) — if her preach
ings, her ordinances, her ministrations, her
truths, her churches — if the waters she is send
ing forth in hundreds of fertilizing rivulets
through the barren wildernesses of the land,
where the scanty waterings of dissent w^ould never
reach — if the thousands, who are rejoicing in
the soul-saving truths of her ministrations ; —
if these rise up to our view at the question,
and bear witness for her in our conscience and
understanding, and we answer the question and
say, * Yes, I am fully persuaded that she has
the truths and ordinances of God in her, and
God is saving his blessed seed in her,' — then
is the matter settled, and the conclusion comes
out irresistibly, that dissent from her is sin.
What is the clear and unavoidable corollary
from this ? Is it not, and must it not be, that
to sanction and encourage dissent is sinful?
There is a broad and visible line of demar
cation between the toleration of dissent, and
the sanction and encouragement of dissent. We
may bear, and we are bound to bear, the infir
mities and wrongnesses of our erring brethren, D

34
for many of them are the Lord's dear children,
Rom. xiv. 1, XV. 1 ; but we may not encourage
them in their infirmities and wrongnesses. We
are bound to have and to exercise all love and
tenderness towards them, in all matters of
conscience, however weak or ill-instructed, be
fore God, to whom, as their own Master, they
must stand or fall, 1 Cor. viii. 12, Rom. xiv. 4 ;
but we may not sanction their weaknesses and
ignorances. We must have no rashness of
anger and unkindness towards them, but
should mourn over their waywardness, and
follow them with beseechings and entreatings
and all faithful words. We should deal with
them as God is ever desirous in the yearnings
of his love to deal with them, instruct them
and teach them in the way they should go,
and guide them with our eye, untiring in its
watchfulness, and beseech them, "Be ye not
as the horse, or as the mule, which have no
understanding, whose mouth must be held with
bit and bridle," Ps. xxxii. 8, 9.
But we must not call evil good, and darkness
light, and foster that which is sinful. To do
so, is sinful in us. It is to be partakers of
other men's sins. It is to bid God speed to
sin, and to be partakers of its evil deeds.
Therefore, if dissent be sin, the sanction of
dissent is sin, and the encouragement of dis
sent is greater sin. Therefore, the prevalence

35
in our day of this sanction and encourage
ment, especially in high places, is, as the pe
tition states, ' evil in itself, inasmuch as the
principle of dissent from a Church, in which
the truths of God are embodied and set forth
for the salvation of men, is opposed to the
principle of the oneness of faith, which is the
principle of the Word of God, and evil in its
consequences, inasmuch as it involves the
sanction and encouragement of errors and
heresies the most awful.'
And here we get to another link in this con
tinuous chain of evil. The encouragement of
dissent extends to the remotest bounds of dis
sent from God's one faith. There can be no
limitation of it, and it is in vain to endeavour
to set one up, and say, ' I only mean to sanc
tion orthodox dissent, the dissent that takes in
the great general doctrines of salvation.' I
answer, first, that there is no truth in the
reason given for the limitation ; for, if there be
any validity in the preceding arguments, there
can be no such thing as orthodox dissent, that
is, there can be no such thing as right-thinking
dissent from the " one faith" of God. And I
answer, secondly, that, admitting that there is
some commonly-understood distinction between
the dissent that receives, and the dissent that
rejects, the great doctrines of the gospel, still
there is no truth in the limitation itself. We
are speaking of a principle — the principle of
D 2

36
the oneness of faith on the one hand, and its
antagonist principle of dissent from it on the
other. If you admit the latter principle, upon
any ground, you cannot limit the exercise of it
within any extent, but you must concede it to
every man, and up to every point. You cannot
say to dissent, that it shall go so far, and no
farther. The answer is obvious, and cannot be
gainsaid, ' What right or power have you to
draw a line ? You admit the principle, it is for
us to carry it out and use it.' You therefore
sanction and encourage, upon principle, the
dissent of Atheism, Deism, Socinianism, and
all and every other heresy that dishonours
God, and destroys souls. And how can any
man answer this at the judgment-seat of
Christ, who is ordained of God to be the Judge
of quick and dead ? How can any man answer
the setting up of a principle, which defies the
very proclamation of the King, who has or
dained the Judge, " this is my beloved Son,
hear him," Luke ix. 35 — and the very rule of
the Judge's court, " he that believeth not shall
be damned?" Mark xvi. 16. And yet this is
just what the liberalism of dissent does and
says; and this is just what the liberalism,
that sanctions and encourages dissent, does
and says. It sets up the principle of the
power of man to do that which is good in his
own eyes, ignorant of the gospel-fact, that
fallen man cannot see with his own eyes what

37
is good — and the right of man to follow the
light of his own mind, ignorant of the gospel-
fact, that dependent man can have no right to
think, or to do contrary to the declarations of
God. And then it sets up the doctrine, that
man, fallen, dependent man, may worship God,
not according to God's truths, but according
to his own conscience, and be accepted, igno
rant of the gospel-fact, that man's conscience
is naturally evil, unenlightened, hardened,
seared, and that the worship of such conscience
is an abomination in the sight of God, Prov.
XV. 8, concerning whose salvation Christ has
said, " I am the way, and the truth, and the
life, and no man cometh to the Father, but by
me," John xiv. 6.
I would now thank you for the kind letter
I received from you yesterday, and assure you,
that in any thing I have ventured to say, I
never had a thought of your views being other
than decidedly favourable to the agricultural
interests. The difference between us, (if I may
use a word, which perhaps condemns me rather
than you,) is as to the sentiments and conduct
of the Government and part of the Legislature
towards the land, and the amount of relief they
are able or desirous to give to it. I cannot but
believe, for reasons already stated, that they
are ill-disposed towards it, and that those
among them, whose property is principally in
land, are realizing the old proverb, qiios Jupiter

38
vult peh'dere pi'ius dementat, and that the favour
able estimate you have made of the Govern
ment generally, is the estimate of one, who,
totally incapable of guile himself, never doubts
the sincerity of the declarations of others. Nor
am I able to see that the commutation of tithe
will be relieving the land generally, or that any
reform in the system of the poor laws and county
rates, or any thing short of taking them en
tirely off the land, and throwing them as a
general burden on the country, will afford
adequate and permanent relief. I see that Lord
Althorp, in his reply to the Northamptonshire
farmers, ascribes their distress to local, rather
than general taxation. Taking this statement
to be correct, and I entirely concur in it, surely
an adequate and instant remedy is to be found
in the removal of local taxation, by transferring
the local burdens of county rates, poor rates,
and road rates, from the land to the state, and
providing for them out of the general taxation
of the country.
But pray believe me, whether vre agree on
all points, or may be still compelled to differ
on some, in pursuing these subjects,
Yours, &c. &c.

39

LETTER VI.
Grievances of Dissenters — Nature and Character of League against
the Church — Public Registration of Births — Marriages of Dis
senters — Scriptural Distinction as to the Ministry.
Having cleared the ground so far, and some
scriptural principles having come out, esta
blishing the sin of breaking the oneness of
faith, and of sanctioning and encouraging
those who do, it now remains to apply these
principles to the question at present before the
public. This question has two parts — one, the
relief of ' the grievances' of Dissenters, as they
are called, and the other, the correction of the
wrongnesses in the outward administration of
the Church.
I will take the minor part, ' the grievances,'
first, premising, that the reform of the Church
upon right scriptural principles, would be, under
God, the means of confronting the crying sin
and evil of schism, and leave no imaginary
grievances to be relieved, whereas the relief of
these would not only not have the least tendency
towards reforming the Church, but will be the
very and the certain means of subverting it.
It will most surely help (however little it may
be now seen) in driving in the wedge till the
National Temple is riven asunder, in getting
the lever under till the National Temple is

40
overturned. The nature of dissent is not to
stop up the crack, but to make it wider ; not to
support, but to destroy. And therein, in that
very destruction to be produced by the sinful
sanction of a sin, God makes it act according
to the fundamental law, by which He has un
changeably bound sin to its consequences, " be
sure your sin will find you out."
He, therefore, who, whatsoever he does, would
do all to the glory of God — who would set his
face as a flint against sin in whatever specious
shape it may present itself — who fears to chip
off the least atom of the Lord's truth, and dares
not sanction evil — who would not furl the
standard of the true Jesus before the bands of
those who hate him, the Infidel, the Papist, the
Socinian, the Liberal, the self-willed Dissenter,
and the Latitudinarian Churchman, indifferent
to all faiths — will take heed to his love for the
souls of men and for him who died to save
them, lest it should run out into an ungodly
channel. He will bring it where God would
have it brought — to the Word, as the guide of
its deeds. " Faith worketh by love," and the
love, which works truly for God and man, is the
love that springs from faith, and faith is believing
God. He will take heed, lest his faith and
love be polluted by the touch of the unclean
thing, the God-denying Liberalism of an evil
world, and lest his zeal be a zeal without know
ledge, and he be found fighting against God.

41
Fighting against God ! Awful position for man
to be found in ! And is he fighting for God, if
he be found in the ranks of the Infidel, the
Papist, the Socinian, the Liberal, and the Lati
tudinarian Churchman ? And who takes up the
grievances of the self-willed Dissenter, and
makes them a weapon of offence against the
Church ? Is it not the Infidel ? Is it not the
Papist? Is it not the Socinian? Is it not the
Latitudinarian Churchman? I am giving the
question the full benefit of the imaginary dis
tinction between orthodox and unbelieving dis
sent. Can these be fighting for God ? Must
they not be fighting against God? Can any
cause be God's, which has a banded con
federacy of these for its patrons, defenders,
advocates ? Impossible. Can darkness love
light, evil love good, Satan love God ? Impos
sible. What fellowship hath unrighteousness
with righteousness ? What concord hath Belial
with Christ, or what part hath an infidel with
him that believeth ? And what agreement have
idols with the temple of God ? Why this con
federacy against the Church ? Is it not against
the truths of God in it and the shining out of
God from it? Is it not against God and his
Christ within the Church that they are casting
their shells and their missiles, though they fall
upon the outworks? The nature of the con
federacy is decisive of the nature of the cause.
And a Christian, tracing this up to the sinful

42
principle of dissent, will see that the whole
matter stands on ground that he must condemn,
and that he may not join the league of the
enemies of God.
Let us examine the ' grievances,' one by one,
by the principles through which we have gone.
The public registration of Births. — This de
mand is of itself unimportant. But it breaks
the oneness of faith as regards the truth of
infant Baptism, the present legal registration
being that of the admission of infants to the
outward church by a Christian rite. Grant it,
and you sanction the error and schism of the
Anti-paedobaptists, who reject infant Baptism ;
of the Quakers, who reject all Baptism; and of
the Independents and others, who baptize in
fants without scriptural ministerial authority,
no authority being given by the Word to un-
scripturally-ordained ministers to administer
ordinances. A public registration of births,
therefore, is inadmissible on gospel principles.
But here I think comes in the great duty of
toleration, and civil toleration may be extended
without breaking in upon the principle of the
oneness of faith, simply by an Act of Parlia
ment, allowing Courts of Justice to receive any
proof of births as evidence. The civil rights
of our erring brethren would be protected with
out any violation of the principle for which I
am contending.
The Marriages of Dissenters. — In this de-

43
mand they do not agree among themselves. Some
of them are requiring that marriage shall only
be a civil contract, as in infidel France, which
is a tolerably large stride back again towards
Heathenism, and marks the evil and infidel prin
ciples of much of the dissent in the land. Some
of them are requiring to be allowed to have
their marriages solemnized in their own chapels
by their own ministers ; and one of our leading
Liberals has introduced a Bill into the House
of Commons to that effect, of whom I feel led
out to predict, that, if his life be spared, he will
some day make a similar declaration of regret
at the working of his measures of reform, as he
has made at the working of the Catholic Eman
cipation Bill in Ireland, of which he was an
eager advocate. The principle before us is at
once fatal to this demand, and comes out too
here in an especial manner. To be a religious
rite in contradistinction to a civil one, marriage
must be solemnized by a scriptural minister.
A scriptural minister is one, whom God re
cognizes as such according to his own rule and
order, and no man should, though hundreds
do, take " this honour unto himself" without
authority from God, and even Christ did not,
Heb. V. 4, 5 ; and every man, who takes it from
the hands of those who have no authority to
give it, is as if he had taken it of himself. And
none have authority to give the ministry, but
those who themselves have it, and none have it

44
but those who have received it in the regular
line and order of ministry from Paul down-
Avards. Consequently, the great bulk of our
dissenting chapels have no scripturally au
thorized ministry and ordinances, and their
ministers and ordinances are only of man's
setting up and man's warrant, in contradistinc
tion to God's. The distinction, as regards the
scriptural ministry, is a very well defined one,
and I shall have occasion to speak again of it.
A marriage, therefore, solemnized by a person
w^ho has no ministerial authority, is but a civil
rite, and to recognize it as an officially religious
one, is to give the character of ministry to the
functions of a self-ordained person, contrary to
God's rule and order, which he, Avho looks to
God's rules and truths in all things, cannot do.
Thanking you for the patience with which
you bear with me, and praying that I may not
be left to mistake the mere light of the mind
for the light of God's Spirit, Believe me, &c. &c.

45

LETTER VII.
Principles of the present Government — Burial of Dissenters in
Church-yards by their own Ministers — Their Demand not to pay
Church Rates — Their Demand of Admission to the Universities —
Correction of Church Grievances or Abuses.
I send you by this post the  — Church
Petition, signed I believe by the whole of the
adult population, male and female. It should
do much, as a proof of the attachment of the
people to the national church, were it properly
called out, towards destroying the notion
that the Dissenters are strong in numbers. I
do not believe it. They are strong in noise and
pretensions, but not in numbers, and I be
lieve that the numerical strength of the Church
of England, if ascertained as at  ¦ — , would
come out so as to extinguish that fallacy;
— and it is partly on this conviction that I
should ground the hope, if it were God's AAdll,
of bringing the people by a reform of the
' Church grievances,' not of the ' Dissenters'
grievances,' into the blessedness of unity and
love and church peace, Ps. cxxxiii.
It should have some effect also on the mind
of the Government upon their own principle of
obeying the wishes of the people. But I fear
that their obedience is of an one-sided kind.
They attend, not to the people, but to their

46
people— not to the sober, quiet, right- think
ing, unobtrusive part of the community, of
whom they take little or no account in their
political census, but to the noisy, ignorant,
" wicked fellows of the baser sort," who congre
gate in market-places and set cities on an up
roar, Acts xvii. 5, whom they dignify with the
euphonous name of ' the people.' But on all
accounts, I have more fear than hope (speaking
after the manner of men) for the Church, when
I contemplate the Government in the glass of
their speeches and sentiments, more particularly
when I see their law-head, the keeper of the
king's conscience, as he is called, and the most
influential man perhaps among them, giving
vent at every opportunity to the enmity of his
mind against God, and continually indulging in
revilings of the ministers of the Church, and
fulsome adulation of its adversaries ; and when
I remember the ostentatious insult he offered
the Lord Jesus and the Church that confesses
him, soon after his elevation, by placing by his
side, on his judgment-seat, as a mark of espe
cial honour, hitherto reserved for the highest
in the land, a minister of Socinian blasphemy
from Liverpool. Oh! How instinctively do I
bless God for having, in his mercy, delivered
me from that God-hating faction and school
of politics ! How involuntarily do I say with
David, " blessed is the man that walketh not
in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in

47
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of
the scornful," Ps. i. 1. The object and ten
dency of all they do and say is, under utterly
false notions of the good of man and the design
of God, to put down the will of God and to put
up the will of man, to make the creature every
thing and the Creator nothing, to cast off the
rules of Jehovah's government of his own world,
and set up in the place of them the proud
inanities of unsanctified knowledge and educa
tion, to act over again the old folly of building
" a city and a tOAver whose top may reach unto
heaven," whose name is Babel, and whose end
will be destruction. Gen. xi. 4. When I medi
tate on these things, and contemplate the man
who " sitteth in the seat of the scornful," re
joicing his heart in all the joy the world can
give him, the praise of man and the riches of
the earth and the pride of life, and delighting
himself with the glory of causing his fellow men
to cower beneath the withering blast of his
sarcasm, I remember the Ixxiiid Psalm, which
tells me, " Behold these are the ungodly who
prosper in the world," v. 12, these are they who
" set their mouth against the heavens, and their
tongue walketh through the earth," v. 9. And
then I remember, that "judgments are prepared
for scorners and stripes for the back of fools,"
Prov. xix. 29, and that when their phaeton-
career is over, and the hour that comes to all
comes to them, they are " brought into desola-

48
tion as in a moment," and sink down into the
burnings of hell," v. 19, and I understand their
end, V. 17, and I know that " it is good forme to
draw near to God," who, when my flesh and my
heart fail, " is the strength of my heart, and my
portion for ever." v. 26, 28.
Allow me now to go on with the Dissenters'
grievances. Their demand of burial in our church-yards
by their own ministers. — This cannot be granted
upon any principles, religious or civil. It in
volves the sanction of a hundred or a thousand
faiths, if the folly and wildness of unconverted
man could invent as many. It would be a
manifest violation of my liberty of conscience (for
I will argue this question in the first person), as
a minister of the Church of England, and of
my rights as the incumbent of the edifice which
stands in the church-yard, which is my freehold,
and also of the rights of the church people, to
which they both belong, for their sacred and
religious uses. I cannot allow a person, an
Atheist, it may be, or a Deist, or a Socinian, or
of any other grade of dissent, calling himself a
minister, to give out his soul-destroying heresies,
if his dissent be of that kind, or his soul-injuring
errors, if his dissent be of that kind, in an
oration over the grave of some poor castaway,
perhaps, in the midst of my people, in their very
church-yard ;^nQ if I am compelled to allow the
act itself, by some unchristian law of the Legis-

49
lature, casting off all scriptural checks on
their liberalism, the love I feel for the souls of
my flock, for they are still mine in spite of
robbers and stealers, and the fear I have of
every evil principle, even the very smallest,
would constrain me to protest at the grave at
the time, or in the pulpit afterwards, against
the vanities or the impieties of the intruding
heretic. What factions, and parties, and hatreds,
and evil things, would all this engender ! What
scenes for a God of love and oneness to look down
upon ! And all to humour the tempers of the
perverse children of the great family of the
state, spoiled and petted by their governors.
But alas ! They are the persons, whose caprices,
however childish, and clamours, however idle,
are to be indulged and yielded to at all hazards,
and at the sacrifice of all God's principles,
while the feelings, and conscience, and rights of
the pious ministers and members of the Church
of England are to be held as worthy of no con
sideration, and as only to be trodden underfoot.
And this by a professedly Christian Legislature !
Oh ! I shall say, if it be ever done, shame,
shame, shame !
Their demand not to pay church rates. — I will
not waste time in arguing this. The very pro
position (which comes, by the bye, with no A^ery
good grace from men, who are demanding the ad
mission of their ministers into the church-yard,
which is fenced and kept in order out of these

50
very rates) includes the destruction of a national
religion, and never can be entertained till the
Legislature is determined to say, in blind or
wilful wickedness, 'We will not protect, or
officially sanction the religion of God, it may
take its chance for us, we care not for it, every
man may have his own household gods or none.'
True it is, my dear Sir, that the Legislature has
already declared itself to be indifferent, as to
whether the members of the State be members
of the Church of Christ or of Papal Antichrist.
It is but a step now to the abandonment of the
national religion, one overt-act of which would
be the taking off the nation the scriptural obli
gation and duty of maintaining the National
Temples of the one faith of God. To this I
fear it will come, as the leaven of liberalism
goes on till the whole lump is leavened.*
* Since the writing of this letter. Ministers have brought in
their bill for the abolition of the present system of Church rates.
It recognises the principle here contended for, of the national
obligation and duty to maintain the National Temples, by
charging the repairs of them upon a portion of the general tax
ation of the nation. But it changes altogether the form of the
obligation. When the patron of each living endowed it from
the produce of his own lands, and built the Church for his te
nantry and poor, it was on the condition, expressed or implied,
that the tenantry or occupiers in the parish, should keep the
Church in repair for ever. The Bill breaks this contract, and, as
far as 1 can see, without necessity. Nor does it satisfy the
Dissenters, who have officially rejected it as a boon to them.
So that, as Liberalism marches on in its progress of power, there

51
Their demand of admission to the degrees,
offices, fellowships, &c. of the Universities. — As
regards all offices, spiritual or others, and
¦livings and endowments, the bare statement of
the Lord's principle of " oneness of faith,"
determines the matter. With respect to any
other question, it is equally determined, where-
ever the thing demanded affects the same prin
ciple, such as the public worship of the one
God in the College Chapels, and the discipline
scripturally belonging to the maintenance of
his one faith. It cannot be granted upon any
other principle than that of godless liberalism.
And now I come to the major and infinitely
more important part of the question, the redress
of the Church grievances, or, in other words,
the correction of Church abuses — and I would
be permitted to discuss it upon a passage in one
of your letters, which, I think, contains just the
marrow of the matter. You say, " In a parish
where there is a faithless minister of the Church
of England, or no minister at all, the inhabi-

can be no doubt thatit will relieve the general taxation of this
new burden by a very summary repeal of the Act ; and the original
contract between the proprietor and his tenantry having been
once broken, it will never be renewed, and the Churches will be
left by the subsequent devices without any legal fund for repairs.
It is thus we can trace out how Ministers, as the Pioneers of
Liberalism, are doing in every thing the preparatory work of
Antichrist.
E 2

52
tants who cry for spiritual food, (or, allow me
to add, whether they cry for it or not) would be
starved but for the exertions of Dissenters."
And the inference you would draw is, that this
implied necessity for the exertion of Dissenters
justifies dissent and the encouragement of it.
Now, if such a reformation could be effected in
the outward administration of the Church, as
would infuse faithful ministers into parishes,
where at present there are faithless ones, or none
at all, who would give out its blessed and soul-
saving truths to the people, this implied ne
cessity for a sin, and the encouragement of a
sin, would cease to exist.
Such a reformation upon scriptural principles
I will endeavour to point out in my next letter,
first saying a word or two on the well-defined
distinction given us in the Word of God, be
tween the proper and scriptural mode of step
ping in between the souls of men and everlast
ing death, in the cases you put, and the evil
and unscriptural mode of modern dissent, which
stands by this reasoning on the awfully sinful
principle, that we may do evil, that good may
come, Rom. iii. 8. — " We may not do evil
AT ALL." Yours ever, &c. &c.

53

LETTER VIII.
Scriptural Subordination — Unchangeableness of God in his Prin
ciples in the Old Testament as in the New— Scriptural Ministry —
God's Election of his People under the Ministry — Papal Ages —
Mental or Educational Light, not Spiritual Light— Definition of
Dissent.
The line of distinction I spoke of at the end
of my last letter, as being well defined in Scrip
ture, is this. Every man has authority from
God to benefit and teach his brother-man.
Every man who knows the truth, may tell it out
to others, and may teach and preach the word
any where, under scriptural restrictions and in
scriptural decency and order.* to one person, or
a hundred persons, or a thousand persons, in a
sick room, or in a cottage, or in the highways,
or in buildings erected for the purpose.
I say, within scriptural restrictions and in
scriptural decency and order, because no man
may outstep them from his own notions of doing
good. Subordination, that is, obedience to the
order, which God has established in all things,
is a beautiful and holy rule. You see it esta
blished every where. You see it in the material
world. You see it in the animal world. You
see it in the mechanical world. You see it in
the political and social world. You see it in the
* " Let all things be done decently and in order," 1 Cor. xiv. 40.

54
intellectual world. You see it in the angelic
world. You see it in the spiritual world. Nay,
you see it in the godhead of the triune Jehovah ;
the Son is subordinate to the Father, John vi.
38, — the Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Fa
ther and the Son, John xvi. 7, 14, 15, — and yet
they are perfectly equal, for subordination does
not destroy equality, it only establishes order,
Eph. V. 21 — 33. It is Satan, not God, who is
" the author of confusion," 1 Cor. xiv. 33. — God
sets up order — Satan breaks it, divides it,
makes schisms in it. God sets up decency, Sa
tan indecency. It is for this reason, that
Paul forbids laymen to usurp the office of mi
nisters, " I beseech you brethren (ye know the
house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of
Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints {tralav tavrsQ hq
iiaKoviav, have given themselves according to order,
to the ministry) that ye submit yourselves unto
such (vTroTaaarja^i, put yourselvcs in order under)
and to every one that helpeth with us and la-
boureth," 1 Cor. xvi. 16 ; " and we beseech you;
brethren, to know them which labour among
you and are over you, in the Lord," 1 Thess. v. 12;
" obey them that have the rule over you and sub
mit yourselves, for they watch for your souls,"
Heb. xiii. 7. And yet Paul had many laymen,
who laboured with him in the word, Rom. xvi. 9,
Phil em. ver. 24.— For the same reason he for
bids women to usurp the office of men, whether

55
laymen or ministers, " I will therefore that
men pray every where (in contradistinction to
women in the next verse, meaning, I suppose,
when men and women are together in the as
sembly) ... I suffer not a woman to teach or to
usurp authority over the man, but to be in si
lence (meaning, I suppose, as before, in minis
trations in an assembly,") 1 Tim. ii. 8, 12.
And yet he had many female fellow-labourers
in the word, Rom. xvi. 12. Indeed this
scriptural decency and order enforces universal
subordination, and is laid down in the word in
a great variety of particulars, such as the con
duct of children, servants, subjects, &c. and
extends itself to all persons in all things.
And so in the matter before us : When some
one out of an ignorant zeal for the ministry
(for there is a zeal for the ministry according to
ignorance, and there is a zeal according to knotv-
ledge) ran and told Moses, that two men were
prophesying in the camp, and when Joshua,
at that time ill instructed in the thing, begged
Moses to forbid them, Moses replied, that he
wished that all the Lord's people would pro
phesy. Num. xi. 27 — 29. And when Paul
speaks of some, who preached Christ even of
envy and strife, and not sincerely, he says, that
he rejoiced and would rejoice, because every
way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ
was preached, Phil. i. 15 — 18. But Moses did
not recognise the prophesiers as ministers, nor

56
did Paul recognise the contentious and insincere
preachers as ministers. Neither had they the
ministry. Moses rejoiced, because the truths
of God were given out by the Lord's people for
the good of men and his glory, and the ministry
not affected thereby. Paul rejoiced, because
Christ was preached, knowing that God rules
evil for his glory and the salvation of men, and
leaving the preachers and their motives to stand
or fall to their own master. But neither this,
nor any other reasoning, could allow Moses or
Paul to receive them or sanction their being
received as the Lord's ministers, inasmuch as
they had not tlie Lord's appointed ministry.
And so is it still. God is unchangeable in
his attributes ; and the principles he has re-
A'ealed are unchangeable. The God he is in the
Old Testament he is in the New, " the same,
yesterday, to-day, and for ever." And they are
exceedingly mistaken, who set the one against
the other, and consider the attributes and prin
ciples of God in the one as differing from those
in the other. The First Testament has waxed
" old," and vanished aAvay in its form and ce
remonies, but not in its substance, nor in one sin
gle principle. The principle of Abel's sacrifice
and of the Jewish sacrifices in the Old, is the
principle of the Lamb's sacrifice in the New,
namely, atonement by blood ; and the principle
of circumcision in the Old is the principle of
baptism in the New, namely, the sign and seal

57
of initiation into the Lord's covenant, which in
its character of universal applicability embraces
infants, for the Lord entered into covenant with
infants by circumcision. Gen. xvii. 10 — 14;
and the Anti-Paedo-Baptists are altogether
blind to this unchangeableness of God in his
attributes and covenant principles, because the
form of his covenants has varied, when they
refuse to see this, and say, that they have no
thing to do with the Old Testament.
Any man, therefore, may still do, if the
Spirit of God rest upon him, as the prophesiers
in the camp of Moses, and the preachers spoken
of by Paul, did. He may go into highways and
byeways, into towns and villages, and preach
and teach the blessed word of life ; and where-
ever he preaches Christ, I rejoice, yea, and will
rejoice. But he has no authority to exercise the
office of a minister, that is, he has no authority
to be over a people, and to dispense the ordi
nances of God to a people. It is that, which
constitutes the ministry ; and no man can
have the Scriptural ministry, but he, that has
received it in God's mode and line. Which is this :
Paul and the other Apostles, received the mi
nistry first in an especial manner from Jesus,
through the Holy Ghost. Paul (to take one of
them) gave the ministry to, that is, ordained,
Timothy and Titus, 2 Tim. i. 6, 1 Tim. iv. 14,
Tit. i. 5, and no doubt others, as ministers. They,
as ministers so ordained, had power to give

58
the ministry to others, Tit. i. 5, and did so —
such others to others — and so from such others
to others, down to the present hour. All per
sons, who exercise the ministry out of this line
and order, exercise it without warrant from
God, intrude into what God never called them
to, and the authority they plead is from men,
not authorised to convey the ministry.
Now dissent does this — sets up a ministry
and ordinances of a kind which God has not
warranted, and is therefore a sinful system,
even where Christ, the true Christ, is truly
preached thereby. I remember, in the early
days of my knowledge of God, how delighted I
have felt, when, in riding over a wild solitary
common, some distance from the town or village
it belonged to, I have 'seen a plain brick Chapel
placed in the midst of the inhabitants, and parti
cularly when I have thought of the aged and sick
among them, An-^ho were unable to reach the minis
tration of the word at a distance. But now, since
I have been more fully instructed in the ways
of God, before I rejoice I wait to know, whether
Christ be of a truth preached there, or whether
it be a mere tinkling sound concerning Christ,
emitted by men who know not the truth. I have
learned, that all is not gold that glitters, and that
there is as much soul-destroying error preached
by Dissenting preachers, as by Church preach
ers, and received by Dissenting congregations
as by Church congregations ; and no man can

59
tell till the great day, when the secrets of all
hearts shall be disclosed, which have slain
most souls, the sins and errors of dissent, or the
sins and errors in the Church. Then I have
also learned from the word, that this unchange
able principle concerning the appointed minis
try, and the appointed plaA;e of worship, is brought
out in application to circumstances and loca
lities, as few see and recognize it. God is
exceedingly jealous for his rules and orders,
and especially for the unchangeable prin
ciple, upon which he grounds them, which
is the glory of his Sovereignty. He will
have mercy upon whom he will have mercy,
and he will have worship where he will have
worship. Hear his words by Moses, "Take
heed to thyself, that thou offer not thy burnt of
ferings in every high place that thou seest, but in
the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy
tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offer
ings, and there thou shalt do all that I command
thee .... if the place which the Lord thy God
hath chosen to put his name there, be too far
from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and
of thy flock which the Lord hath given thee, as
I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in
thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,"
Deut. xii. 13, 14, 21.
Then, with respect to the necessity you
would infer from the cases you put for dissent,
and the encouragement of it, it certainly argues

60
a want of faith in God, always bearing in mind
the distinction between the ministry and the
mere preaching of the word to dying and
starving souls, to imagine it to be necessary
for us to commit sin, in order to procure glory
to God and salvation to men. It is as if God
does not know his own purpose, or cannot
effect it, and as if it were needed, that we
should lay aside God's commands and rules,
and tell him, that we know how to effect his
purposes better than himself.
The question with us is of saving souls.
Try it by our Lord's words in John vi. 37, " All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me."
All sliall come. It has been determined that
all shall come, and not one be lacking. Take
those other words of our Lord's in v. 44, " No
man can come unto me, except the Father,
who hath sent me, draw him," (or, as in v. 65,
" except it were given him of my Father.")
No man can come. It has been determined
that no man can come. Take a parish where,
or take it at a time when, the Father has
given it to 7bon£ to come to Christ, and all the
exertions of all the Dissenters in the world
would not bring out one soul to Christ, if those
words be true. You may ascribe all the sin
and perdition you there see to the want of a
Church minister, or to the faithlessness of the
one who is there, and, as one of the links of
the chain of God's great purposes, you Avill

61
ascribe it rightly ; but if you stop there,
and do not rise up to the sight of the truths
contained in our Lord's words above, you will
unquestionably miss the real facts of the case.
Dissenters might do much outwardly, and
" glory in appearance" — they might form a
company of seeming worshippers, with all the
accompaniment of the outward things of their
sect — they might reduce much of what was
disorderly into order, and establish much of
what is moral to rejoice over — and yet not one
soul would be saved. For, in spite of all the
reasonings and cavils of men, those words of
Christ will stand true in their fulfilment. And
as, on the one hand, not one soul in that
parish, given to Christ of the Father, shall be
kept from coming by the faithlessness of the
minister, or the lack of one ; so, on the other
hand, not one, not so given to Christ, shall
come by all the exertions and seeming work
of Dissenters. Doubtless, the lack of a mi
nister, or the faithlessness of the one ap
pointed, is working out the eternal purpose of
God ; and who or what can disannul that pur
pose ? I am not speaking against employing
means to bring out souls to God : of all things
you will not impute this to me. No. Unques
tionably, all means should be used, all scriptural
means : and the word and the preacher should
go every where, for no one can tell where the

62
blessed ones of the Lord lie. I am only speak
ing of the fact itself, under the employment of
all means or of none, revealed to us in these
words of Jesus, that we may learn to trust
and give the glory to God more, and to man
less. Change the scene. In the same parish, at
another period, the Father has some whom
he has given to Christ, and to w^hom he gives
it to come to Christ, and then he sends a faith
ful minister to bring them out. But still the
fact, the glorious fact, is, that the Lord has his
people, even in a parish where there is a faith
less minister, and he works out their salvation
in the exercise, simply, of the office of the
minister of his own ordained order. I know an
aged woman, who has been walking with God
in joy, and peace, and holiness, for twenty-seven
years, who was met under a faithless minister,
and never heard, in chur-ch or chapel, what is
called a gospel sermon in her life, till within
these eight years. And I knew another, who
is now in paradiso, and went there singing
praises to the Lamb, who appeared to the out
ward eye nothing better than a mere church-
formalist, and having what I should call, and
what I did call when she was living, before
the end was seen, a superstitious regard for
outward ceremonies, and whom nothing could
have induced to enter a dissenting chapel. We

63
cannot bring things into a square, such as we
model — God works in his own way.
If this were not so, what are we to say about
men's being saved in the dark papal ages?
Were none saved for many centuries? Had
God no family then ? And were all the thou
sands and millions in the generations of that
long period cast into eternal perdition? You
will say, ' No, certainly God had his true
people then.' And the word says so too, for
it tells us, that " the woman (the true saved
Church) fled into the wilderness, (into the pa
pacy from the heathen and Arian nations of that
period,) where she hath a place prepared of
God, that they should feed her there 1260
days, (years,)" Rev. xii. 6, 14.
And what are we to say concerning our an
cestors since the Reformation, in the compa
ratively dark ages since they have been de
livered from the Antichrist- thraldom of Popery?
Shall we say that God had no family, or com
paratively but a small family then, merely be
cause they had not the light of literature and
education, which we, poor and rich, have now ?
No. The present light of education and know
ledge is but the light of the flesh, and not of
the Spirit, and we must not mistake the one
for the other. The Spirit of God is ever at
work in dark ages as well as in light, to bring
out his eternally-ordained children to Christ,

64
and Ave know not how much we may err in our
boastings, when we think and call ourselves
wiser unto salvation than our forefathers, be
cause mental light is doing its mighty wonders
round us. Mental light is not spiritual light,
and has not the slightest tendency to become
so, and never can, by any process, change its
nature and become so. Our Lord says. Ex
cept a man be born again, (avwflev from above,)
or of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king
dom of God ; and he gives the reason — " that
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit," John iii.
3, 5, 6. The flesh never can become the Spirit.
They are as two parallel lines, and never can
run into each other. The mind, or understand
ing, or reason of man, is the flesh, and that
which is born of it is flesh ; and carry it to
the highest point of cultivation, it is still flesh,
and does not approach by a single step towards
salvation, which is of the Spirit. The greatest
spiritual darkness may co-exist with the great
est mental light, both in nations and indi
viduals. Witness the melancholy exhibition
the other night, on the grant to Maynooth Col
lege, when the House of Commons — once the
Protestant, but now the Papal-infidel-liberal,
House of Commons — bore down with scorn
the attempts of a few faithful men to uphold
the truths of the gospel against the idolatrous

65
Papacy. The mental light of our day did
not prevent this, nor did it prevent Mr. Spring
Rice and others, from uttering the darkest
errors, and advancing the kingdom of Satan ;
nor does it prevent the advance of Popery, So
cinianism, and dissent of all casts from the
one faith. And so the word declares. Christ
will come to judgment when this mental light
is shining over the world in all its brightness,
and yet he comes in judgment, because the
world will be in wickedness and unbelief, as it
was in the days of Noah, and as Sodom was
in the days of Lot, Luke xvii. 26 — 30; and
when he comes, he says, he shall scarcely find
faith upon earth, Luke xviii. 8. This light,
being only the light of the flesh, will lead
men into wanderings farther and farther from
God, till it works out the full measure of apos
tasy, while men will be all the while rejoicing
and glorying in it, and saying to one another,
just what Satan told the woman would be the
effect of her eating the fruit of the tree of
knowledge in Paradise, ' our eyes are opened,
and we are as Gods, knowing good and evil,
arid we shall not die,' Gen. iii. 4, 5. — Whatever
grows on this ' tree of knowledge, salvation
does not.
Yes, I am convinced that we overrate the men
and underrate the office. We are always exalt
ing the creature, and lowering the Lord God
F

06
Jehovah ; while the fact is, that " the foohsh-
ness of God is wiser than men, and the weak
ness of God is stronger than man," and " no
flesh" shall " glory in his presence." 1 Cor. i.
25, 29. If men had rejected the castaway Judas
in the day of his ministry, the word which our
Lord said to him when he sent him to preach
the kingdom and heal the sick, would have
condemned them : " He that despiseth you de-
spiseth me, and he that despiseth me, despiseth
him that sent me," Luke x. 16. And if a
leper had refused to be liealod by Judas, be
cause he was an evil minister, and had said to
him, ' You are a thief and a hypocrite, and
would sell your Master for a little silver (all of
which was true), I will go to a good man whom
I know of, who can heal and preach as well as
you' — however better this man might be than
Judas, the leper would have gone down to his
grave a leper as white as snow. Why ? Simply
because Christ had appointed Judas to heal him,
and not the man whom he liked better than
Judas. What then is the truth that comes out ? Even
this, that dissent is — not preaching or teaching
the truths of God anywhere and everywhere, but
holding things contrary to God's will and word,
and setting up a ministry and ordinances con
trary to God's will and word, even whether the
things held and preached be contrary or accord-

67
ing to his word — that this is sin — and that the
sanction and encouragement of such disobedi
ence, under any pretence, is sin, because it is
the sanction and encouragement of a sin.
This subject has run out to a greater length
than I anticipated ; but being now cleared away,
I will apply myself, in my next letter, to the
discussion of the church reformation. Yours ever, &c.

f2

68

LETTER IX.
Reform of the Church— Object of it — Evil of faithless Ministers-
Cause of it— Present System of Patronage of Livings— Scrip
tural Principle of Appointment — Proposed Mode upon the Scrips-
turat Principle— Re-modelling of the Episcopacy.
The object of all reformation of the church
must be to save souls. Unless souls are saved,
the most beautiful church structure that man
could devise would be utterly without value.
The offices in the church are not for the benefit
of those who fill them ; nor is the church meant
to be an instrument in the hands of the State to
preserve social and political order, by the moral
instruction it may convey to the people. The
church, and the offices in the church, are for
the salvation of souls, by calling out sinners to
Christ, the Saviour, and building them up in his
" most holy faith." All other objects by the
side of this are not worth putting into the ba
lance, and all objects wdthout this are the mere
dust in the balance, which the Lord will blow
away. So of the reformation of the church.
The object of it must be to save souls — the first,
the second, the third, the all in all object. All
interests and all temporal views must be subor
dinated to this, for it is this, for which the Eternal
Son of God veiled his glory in our flesh and
died.

69 .
The doctrines of the Church of England are
the truths of the everlasting God. Her ministry
and ordinances are according to his eternal
word, which contains his truths. It is in the
administration of her outward things, particu
larly in the administration of her benefices, and
of the ordination of her ministers, that she is
out of the scriptural upright. It is here, where
the root of the evils you complain of is found,
that some parishes have faithless ministers, and
some have none at all. I will take the evils in
this order of division, beginning with that of
faithless ministers.
The cause of this evil lies partly in the pa
tronage of the benefices, and partly in the ordi
nation of the ministers. Let us take the former
first, as my ideas on the latter will open them
selves more clearly, when I come to speak of the
reformation of the present system of episcopacy.
The whole present system of patronage is un
scriptural. I use no lower word. I do not call
it inexpedient, or improper, but I go to the root
of the matter, and call it unscriptural, knowing
that, if any thing be unscriptural, it must be
productive of all manner of inexpediencies and
improprieties. The system of proprietary patronage, by which
family livings are made provisions for sons, and
other livings are matters of worldly traffic, and
others are^ purchased for the maintenance of
the purchasers or their kindredr and others are

^ 70
the rewards of political friendships and services,
and others are disposed of for manifold sinful
objects, without any thought or care for the
souls of men — this is the cause of faithless
ministers being scattered over the land. The
remedy, to be effectual and equal to the rooting
out of this evil, must entirely destroy the pre
sent system, as an utter abomination. Lay pa
tronage, crown patronage, collegiate patronage,
patronage ecclesiastical or private, patronage of
every kind, must all come within the remedy.
And yet there is a scriptural principle in the
institution of our livings, inasmuch as a bishop
has a right and power to reject the person pre
sented by the patron, if upon due examination
he believes him to be unfit, and even to appoint
his own clerk instead. But because the pa
tronage of a living is property, the civil power
•Steps in and protects the patron, and so harasses
the bishop by its unscriptural domination in the
exercise of this right, arid so indeed circum
scribes the exercise of it, that, in spite of the
recent case in the diocese of Exeter, it has be
come all but obsolete. And now mark the
reason again— just hec^vtse patronage is property.
And so every evil brings its own punishment.
And thus faithless ministers are perpetuated
from generation to generation, because pa
tronage, as property, is held more sacred than
the salvation of souls.
The remedy is, that the appointment to livings

71
be vested where the Scripture has vested it, iti
the ministers of the church. Or, if there be a
doubt that the Scripture has vested the appoint
ment itself in them for want of express terms to
that effect, although the inference of such vest
ing may be clear, and if the present system of
patronage, in consideration of the nature of its
origin, and of its continuance for so many cen
turies, be to have the benefit of the doubt, then
the remedy is, that an ^ectual power be vested in
the m,inisters of the church over the appointment
by the patron.
And here I would say a word on the Dissen
ters' system of choosing their ministers by the
church or people ; as it seems to be so much
the fashion to think that the truth is always in
a great measure with them. I do not speak of
the inexpediency of the system, which counter
balances a thousand times over its seeming
advantages, but I speak of it in reference to
Scripture ; and I assert, that there is no Scrip
tural warrant for their election of ministers by
the church or people. Paul set Titus over Crete,
and Timothy over Ephesus. But if the question
is to be taken out of Scripture as a thing not
specified in express words (inasmuch as while
the fact itself is clear, yet express words are
wanting to determine whether Paul set these
ministers over their churches by his own ab
solute authority, which it is clear to my mind

72
he did, or in deference to the wishes of the
people,) and to be held as a thing that may be
settled upon expediency, then on that ground
the Church of England practice will be justified
of presenting a minister by the patron to the
bishop or elder, inasmuch as presentation by a
patron may be more expedient than presentation
by the people or church. And unquestionably
it is so with our church, if we look either to its
present state, or to its origin. The patronage of
its livings stands upon the fact, that when some
1300 years ago each patron built his church,
and endowed his living with the tenth of the
produce of his lands for ever, it was upon the
stipulation, covenanted or understood, of present
ing his own minister ybr ever, subject to the ap
proval of the proper spiritual person or persons.
The principle, then, being granted of the ap
pointment being vested in the ministers of the
church, and having been made in its exercise
only a matter of arrangement for the sake of
a permanent national worship, which, on the
above reasoning, it was scripturally right to do,
provided the point at issue were not scripturally
clear, I will apply it to my scheme of refor
mation. I would have, then, the appointments to all
livings really vested in a certain specified num
ber (^say 12 or 15) of the most pious and spiri
tual clergymen in districts well divided. That

73
is. Every diocese should be divided into dis
tricts, and the livings within such districts be
disposed of by a certain number of such clergy
men, living in them. Such clergymen to be
elected by the clergy, patrons of the livings,
and one representative from every parish (to be
chosen by the householders), in each district —
the number always to be kept up by immediate
election at each vacancy by death or otherwise.
The presentation to be made to them by the
patron, and the person so presented to be ap
pointed by them, or, upon due report being
made, by the Bishops of the Diocese, if after a
due examination, doctrinal and spiritual, he
be accepted and approved of; and if he be re
jected, an appeal to be allowed to the Bishops
of the Diocese, when, if the rejection be con
firmed, the rejection shall be absolute, and they
themselves, or the Bishops and the District
Ministers together, shall appoint the Minister.
The whole of the present system of patron
age, with all its abominations, would be thus
broken down, the unscriptural and pernicious
usurpation of the civil law would be abolished,
scripture would be satisfied, and the Church of
England would rid herself of this most prolific
source of faithless ministers.
I have spoken of Bishops of the Diocese, and
I now come to the re-modelling of the Epis
copacy, when the term will be explained. I

74
would re-toodel it upon a simple scriptural
principle, for I dare not upon any other.
The usual idea of reforming the Church is
to reform its property, and the usual plan of
reforming its property, is by equalizing it.
Now I must confess, that such ideas are to
me nothing but ideas of worldliness, and such
plans nothing but plans of spoliation, and can
be maintained on no other principle that I can
see, than that sinful one of doing evil that good
may come, which is neither more nor less than
the horrible principle of expediency, that on a
pinch will warrant the greatest enormities man
can commit. If Peter be robbed on this prin
ciple of equalizing, though it be for the purpose
of paying Paul, still Peter is robbed, and no
man on any pretence may rob another. Take
the Livings. Each Living was endowed with
its own endowments for ever, and is the actual
property of each lifeholder ; and this, remem
ber, for ever, by the Avill and disposition of the
original patron who endowed it, on the very
same ground, as far as I can see, as every other
man holds his hereditary property, which is
transmitted from father to son. There is no
distinction between Church property, as pra-
perty, and any other. The same constitutional
law, which protects one, protects the other.
Church property is not, and never was. State
property, and the State can no more rightly

75
interfere with it, than with any other private
property in the realm. It is for this reason,
that the principle of Lord Althorp's tithe-com
mutation bill is one of spoliation, because it
makes the tithe dependent upon the rent, for
the purpose of injuring it in its value, contrary
to the principle of the endowment and the will of
the endower ; and the effect must be, in many
small vicarages and rectories, to increase the
evil of non-residences and " no ministers," by
the ruinous diminution of their revenues, al
ready inadequate, unless the remedy, which I
shall presently propose for the cure of this evil,
were adopted. If this reasoning as to Church-
property be true of ordinary Livings, it is
equally true of Sees. No constitutional power
exists to touch the revenues of Bishopricks,
under the pretence of equalizing, or under any
other pretence whatever. The three Estates of
the realm have physical power to do it, and no
other ; — ^^the power, which they equally have to
confiscate your private property, or to imprison
your person; — the power, which spoliated last
year the Church revenues in Ireland, whereas
the revenues should have been held sacred, and
the holders of them made efficient ministers of
the truths of Jesus, by the plan I shall now
speak of, in that idolatrous country, where they
are so much needed.
By this plan the same object may be obtained
scripturally and honestly, Avithout doing evil

76
that good may come, which never may be done,
and the system of Episcopacy be brought into
scriptural beauty and efficiency. It is this. Let
each Bishoprick, as it becomes vacant in future,
be split into many parts or districts, and instead
of one person being appointed over it, let many
be appointed, — the number to be regulated by
the number of the parishes belonging to it, and
the amount of its revenues, which are to remain,
abolishing the sad system of letting by fines or
leases. Each District Bishop to have no more
than about £500 or £600 per annum, and to
have as many parishes to his district as the
Bishoprick will divide into by the division of
its revenues, according to some such scale as
the one mentioned. Thus, the See of A  , if
worth £8000 per annum, and containing 400
parishes, would divide into 16 districts of 25 pa
rishes each, at £500 per annum, to each District
Bishop : it would be still the See of A^  ,
with 16 Bishops instead of one. If the See of
B  be worth £ 1 500 per annum , and contain 1 00
parishes, it would divide, upon the same scale,
into three districts of about 33 parishes each :
it would still be the See of B  , with three
Bishops instead of one. This scale and division
to be well digested, and the parishes forming
each district to be all together, and to be ap
portioned as to number, with reference to size
and importance. The District Bishops to be
elected by the Clergy of the District, and all

77
interference of the Crown to be entirely done
away. The Archbishops to come in as Bishops,
they being but the old Cardinals of the Papacy,
descended down to us from the incompleted
Reformation, and Archdeacons to be abolished,
there being no longer any need of them, and as
neither they nor Archbishops have any place in
scripture. The Bishops to be no longer temporal
Peers, which is altogether unscriptural and
contrary to the genius of Christianity, and their
palaces to be appropriated to the use of the
Bishops for residences in common, as in our
colleges, as far as is practicable consistently
with propinquity to their districts, and to re
ligious purposes for the benefit of the See, such
as holding councils of Clergy and Laymen, ac
cording to scripture, on doctrines and other
Church matters, see Acts i. vi. xv. &c. &c. The
powers of superintendence, now vested in the
one Bishop, to be vested in the District Bishops,
and each District Bishop to visit as often as he
can each of his parishes, see with his own eye
the state of things in them, spiritual and tem
poral, preach from time to time in all his
churches, visit his clergy at their houses, mix
with the people in his visits, enter into the
parochial plans of clergy and people for the
spiritual good of all around them, and give
advice and instruction as a kind, sympathizing
friend and brother. How delightful it would
be to have such a man come among us from

78
time to time, with a brother's eye and a bro
ther's heart, as in the first days of Christianity,
preaching the gospel and teaching many, " con
firming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting
them to continue in the faith," ordaining elders
in every place, and commending them to the
Lord, and abiding long time with the disciples,
Acts xiv. 21 — 28! Blessed and glorious state
of things ! Lord Jesus, restore it to us !
And then observe the mutual action of these
two reformations on each other. Good and
faithful parochial ministers, procured by thus
virtually giving the appointments of the livings
to good and faithful ministers, would elect good
and faithful Bishops, who in their turn would be
an inconceivable help to their faithful brethren,
and controul over their faithless ones, whenever
such crept in, like Simon Magus, as well as be
the very means of bringing faithful persons into
the ministry, and keeping faithless ones out, as,
if we are spared, we shall see in my next letter.
And the Bishops, Clergy, and people would be
brought into brotherly union and love, and
Church subordination and peace together, to
the benefit of all.
Desiring for you all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Believe me, &c. &c.

79

LETTER X.
Present System of Ordination — Proposed Reformation of it — Evil vf
' No Ministers' in Parishes— Cause of it— Proposed Remedy of
it — Lay-tithes — Cathedral Property — Overgrown Livings.
The other human cause of the evil of faithless
ministers is to be found in our system of or
dination. I feel that I am walking here upon
tender ground. I am mindful that I must not
speak evil of dignities, nor bring a railing accu
sation against any, nor have even an accusing
spirit. And God helping me, I Avill not, for He
knoweth that I lie not, when I say that it is
not in me to speak from the spirit of " the ac
cuser of the brethren." But I cannot but see
and declare, that the guards and barriers in the
admission of persons into our ministry are very
defective. Many causes operate to make them
so. T^e candidates' testimonials are often too
lightly given, sometimes without adequate
knowledge of the candidates' state of mind and
life, and sometimes against knowledge of them.
The system being to receive these testimonials
as conclusive of that part of the matter, the
Bishop unfortunately feels that the part, which
devolves upon him, is pretty exclusively con
fined to the examination of the candidates'
competency in human learning, and know-

80
ledge of the doctrines and evidences of the
Christian religion. And being but one person,
acting under this defective system of testimo
nials, he finds himself much shackled in the
full discharge of his high and awfully responsi
ble office.
I would, therefore, have the ordaining of
ministers given to the whole number of the
District Bishops for each See. The remedy
for this evil is just provided in the District
Bishops ; and the suitableness of the division of
the See into several holders comes in here in an
especial manner. Good and faithful Bishops,
elected by good and faithful ministers, and
acting in a body or council, would be able to
change the whole system of ordination grounded
on defective testimonials, and to do what even
a good and faithful Bishop, being but one,
is with the present system unable to do.
They would take the examination out of the
critical and intellectual channel in which it
so very much runs, and without losing sight
of the usefulness of such attainments as sub
ordinate auxiliaries to spiritual wisdom, but
putting them in their proper place, they would
lead the examination into personal knowledge
of doctrines, personal spiritual-mindedness, and
personal probability of usefulness in the mi
nistry and adaptation to the contemplated
sphere of action. This reformation would pro
vide you faithful ministers, out of whom the

81
district ministers would appoint to the bene
fices, or the patrons select their clerks for the
district ministers to appoint ; and the two re- .
formations united would provide, I think, against
the evil of faithless ministers, as far as human
provision can. And while the Dissenters are
going off far away from Christ and the prin
ciples of his Gospel, in their carnal cravings
after the worldly learning and worldly dis
tinctions of our universities, the Church of Eng
land would become as apostolical in her prac
tice as she is in her doctrine.
Now as to the evil of "no ministers" in some
parishes. This evil arises in almost all cases
from the small income of the livings, which
the tithe-commutation bill, if persevered in, will
make smaller. In some instances, livings
are so small that two, three, and even more
parishes are compelled to be joined together
in one person, to make up a bare maintenance
for him, and which they scarcely do at last,
so that there can be a minister residing but in
one. In others, there is no resident minister,
because there is no parsonage house, and the
living is .too poor to build one. In almost
all instances, I conceive the want of a resi
dent minister is traceable to inadequacy of
income on the part of the benefice. For even
where one person is holding two adequate
livings, there is usually a resident curate on one.

82
while the pluralist himself resides on the
other. Now my reformation here is very short and
simple ; but it is one, which would be loudly
cried down by many of our loudest declaimers
on church reform, inasmuch as while they are
forward to reform wrong things in others, they
are backward in having the wrong things in
themselves reformed. It is, not to plunder
and spoliate the larger livings, and to give
out of them to the smaller ones, under the
Robin Hood pretence of equalizing, as is the
average principle of the tithe-commutation bill,
and which, again I say, no man or men can do
without sinning against God and breaking
through the constitutional law of this land.
But it is to bring tlie church property, which is
in lay hands, to the aid of the church in its
need. And it would be the test of the motives
of many a church-reformer, in Parliament and
out, whether he has the good of men really at
heart, or whether his speakings and actings are
the combined result of many evil feelings, envy,
malice, selfishness, hatred of God and his truths
and his ministers, and all else that goes to
make up the liberal puller-down of the Church
of England.
I need not stop to speak of the unscriptural
pluralities of two adequate livings, for the basis
of my plau being that every parish shall have

83
one resident incumbent at least, the filthy-lucre
system of pluralities instantly falls to the
ground. I will, therefore, pass on to the other
cases, and the plan itself.
I do not know if it be worth while here to take
up time, by preliminarily debating the question
of the right in perpetuum of the possessors of
the lay- tithes of parishes. I am prepared to
take up the discussion against them on that
head, for I do hold that nothing but the law of
the strongest, which is the law of the robber,
can justify the forcible alienation in the first
instance of the parochial endowments, given to
and settled on the parishes /or ever, by the pro
prietors of the parishes some thousand years
before — and that nothing but the same law can
justify the continued possession of them now —
and that when reform is on foot, the right and
equitable reform must not be overlooked. I
would also debate the point as against the
Papists, for it is in vain for them to say, that if
the church lay-property is to be restored, it be
longs to them. It does not belong to them,
nor overdid. The parochial endowments in this
country were in existence centuries before
popery was the idolatrous antichrist it is now,
and were settled in parishes to maintain a na
tional church of the true Jesus. And even
if it were as they wish to state it, still a nation
has a right to purify its national religion, and
ensure to the reformed church the property
G 2

84
which has been set apart for the support of the
national religion. I really feel ashamed to
argue this question, for it is burning candles
by day-light to show the incongruity, the ano
maly, of a layman holding spiritual property,
as it is also to prove that the possession of
that which was originally acquired by such
wrong can ever, by a lapse of time, be a just
and equitable possession. If a horse be stolen,
no after-purchase by other persons, or here
ditary descent from him to whom the robber
gave it, can make the possession of it just.
I am speaking only of parochial endotvments.
I am not speaking of the iniquitously-acquired
and iniquitously-used property of the popish
nunneries and convents. Tljat question is al
together a distinct one ; and I leave it to the
Papists and the holders of that property to fight
it out together, protesting against all attempts
to mystify the simple question of parish en
dowments. You will now easily anticipate my plan of
reformation on this head. It is to have the
lack of income in every parish . supplied out of
the lay-tithes of that parish — and to have an
adequate parsonage house built and kept up
in every parish, where, through the inadequacy
of the living, there is now none, out of the lay-
tithes of that parish.
I believe, that if the people of England could
see the real state of the case, the hundreds of

85
parishes where the want of spiritual ministers
and resident ministers is occasioned by the
means, which were given to provide them, going
now into the pockets of wealthy and titled lay
men, who give nothing back in return, no service,
spiritual or temporal, their sense of justice, (I
do not say their sense of religion,) but their
sense of moral justice would at once enlist them
on the side of the right reform of the church
property. I believe it from the grossness of the
instances, with which my limited knowledge
supplies me. I will mention one or two. One
is of a vicarage, where the population is upwards
of 2000 souls, of which the sole endowment is
£63 per annum. Another of two parishes, with
two churches run into one incumbency, of
which the sole endowment is about £70 per
annum. Another, where the emoluments are
under £60, and another, where they are under
£20. But it were endless to go on. These are
all in our own county, and in every one of them
the church lay-tithes produce hundreds per
annum to the owners. I know another in an
adjoining county, where all the endowment is
an annual money-payment of £18. 6s. 8d.
to the Vicar by the Lay-rector, whose great
tithes produce a large sum per annum, and that
in a population of 1600 souls. And I know of
another in Gloucestershire, where the Vicar re
ceives an annual sum of £13, while the Squire
of the place receives hundreds per annum from

86
the church lay-tithes, and that in a parish
where the population is upwards of 4000. Do
you not think that if these things were known —
if this, which is the real state of the case, were
known — the question of the church reform
Avould assume, in the eyes of the people of
England, a very opposite aspect to that, in
which the reform agitators have so ingeniously
contrived to put it, and that to the confusion
and dismay of many among them ? I do.
And do you think, after the Legislature has deter
mined in the disfranchisement of the chartered
boroughs, (which even Junius said never could
be done constitutionally,) that nothing of right,
nothing of property, shall stand in the way of
public benefit, that any plea of injustice, on
the score of lay-tithe having been for so many
years recognized and legalized as lay property,
can be successfully set up against so vast a
public benefit ? I do not.
The proper remedy then for the evil of " no
ministers" is the supplying ministers to, and
building parsonage houses in, every parish where
needed, out of the lay-tithes. In all instances
it may be done easily — in many instances very
easily. Such as where the vicarial revenue is
a fixed money payment by the Lay -rector. It is
but estimating the payment by the present
value of money in comparison of its value in
the time of Henry VIII. We may presume the
payment allotted to the Vicar to have borne a

87
certain proportion to the value of the great
tithes at the time the separation was made.
The great tithes have increased in value since
then, in a tenth, fifteenth, or some other ratio ;
while the vicarial payment, being fixed, has
remained for those three hundred years station
ary. It is therefore but bringing it into the same
relative proportion it originally bore, and as it
was intended to bear, by having it valued according
to the present value of money. What is £20
in Henry the Eighth's time worth now ? By
this act of common equity you would supply
many a neglected parish with soul-saving mi
nistrations. The cathedral property. — Here again the
property must be held sacred, for all the fore
going reasons, with the system of fines and
leases abolished. But the holders of it must
be made to work in the Lord's service. Every
bishoprick has many spiritual wilds and wil
dernesses. Let chapels be built in all such
places out of cathedral property, and in great
towns where they are wanted in each see, and
the prebendaries and other such holders of
chapter property be sent to labour there, or in
the place itself, if needed, where the prebend
lies. The appointment to these offices, then
having the cure of souls attached to them, to
come under the District Bishops, like all other
benefices. And should the annual income of
any cathedral be too large for the present num-

88
ber of holders, an increase to be made in the
holders, according to a scale of income. The
reform needed is not to diminish the property
of the church nor to equalize it (which may not
be done,) but to increase the number of work
ing ministers to meet the needs of an increasing
population, who now break the oneness of the
Lord's faith, by calling for the various teachers
of error around them for lack of ministers of
the one faith of God.
Overgrown Livings. — I would deal with them
as with the bishopricks — have two, three, four,
five incumbents, instead of one, according to
the circumstances of the living, thereby preserA'-
ing the sacredness of the property, and making-
it of twofold, threefold, fourfold, fivefold utility.
Many livings are already so divided, as Wad-
desdon, in Buckinghamshire. And indeed, our
ancestors provided two incumbents to every
parish, the Rector and the Vicar. The separa
tion of the great tithes in lay hands proves it.
Adopt my plan, and the rector is restored to the
parish at once.
You have thus in the lay tithes of the country
the very provision for the reform you want of
the evil of ' no ministers !'
I fear I have wearied you by my corre
spondence. One more letter I think will close it.
Believe me,
Your's, &c. &c.

89

LETTER XI.
Government Tithe Commutation Bill — Plunder of Church Pro
perty — Dissent indestructible— Universality of Faith — Present
Dispensation one of Election — Future, one of Universality —
Present State of the World, Society, Man — Last Days — True
Scriptural Reform undesired, and not to be expected — Present
Government and their Reform Plans — The Lord's Question —
The Lord's Day.
Thus you have the elements of true scriptural
reformation in the present constitution of the
Church itself. The reformation is simple, easy,
quiet, and, above all, according to God's vi^ord,
breaking in upon no principle, requiring no
violent change, doing injury to no man in his
just property, and benefiting hundreds and
thousands in their souls. You have it ready for
your hands, ready for moulding up and bringing
out, and you have but to shape it according to
the eternal rules of plain scriptural honesty. —
Vest the appointment to all benefices, actually
or virtually, in a certain number of good minis
ters in each district, and give the ordination
to District Bishops to be elected by the clergy
and patrons of benefices — and you have an
effectual provision (speaking humanly) ior faith
ful ministers. Call the church parochial lay
property into church uses, and make the hold
ers of cathedral property and large livings
AA'orking ministers in the great towns and

90
waste places of the land — and you have an
effectual remedy for the evil of ' 710 minis
ters.'
You say, " it would be unwise to moot such a
question as the lay tithes at all events now."
I thought you were wishing to reform the
Church now. If you wish to reform the Church
now, you must take up the question of lay
tithes now. And noiv I think is the time to
take it up, that a stand may be made upon it
against the farther pillage of the Church, which
has begun in Ireland, and I have no doubt is
meditated for England. Besides, nothing is
unwise, that is right and scriptural. You say,
" it might seriously interfere with Church re
form." Now I thought the question was Church
reform. I thought the question was the reme
dying the evil of ' no ministers.' The reform
of the parochial lay tithes is part of the ques
tion of Church reform, for it is by reforming
them that you remedy the evil of ' no ministers.'
How that evil is to be otherwise remedied, I
cannot conceive, especially as it is about to be
increased by the tithe commutation bill, as
you will see by the enclosed paper, which a
friend has drawn out for you at my request,
and by which you will also see that the fair
and just value is not given to any livings by the
average principle, but that one has more and
another less than what is fair and just, to the
wrong of every landed proprietor, who has to

91

pay to that which has more than it ought.* If
you are expecting, as the remedy of that evil.

aa

Acres.

Present Rent.

Tithe as per clause 27
of the bill.

Annual value, if redeemed
as per clause 66, and in
vested in the 3 per cents,
as per clause 71, supposing
the money bought in at
£00 stock.

A

500

£500

£90

£71

8

6|f

£59 10

5| -'ii
^ 11045

B

500

700

130

100

0

0

80 0

0

C

3000

4000

800

571

8

6JJ 4 7

476 3

9i ^
^ 140

D

2500

5000

500

714

5

8J J
2 7

561 18

1 ^ 175

E

1000

1500

150

214

5

8-1 J
2 7

178 11

g 16572737
320I250U

F

800

800

200

114

5

9,11 S 7

95 4

9 ^"
49UO0O

G

5000

5000

500

714

5

8iJ 2 7

561 18

1 _i5 175

H

300

400

80

57

2

lOi-^

47 12

H -,

I

500

600

150

85

14

3-1-5

71 8

f'l '.

K

400

400

100

67

2

\011 4 7

47 12

H 7

14,500

18,900

2700

2700

0

0

2180 0

OJ. ii
nearly.

The redemption -will be to the tithe proprietor, an average
loss of about £19. 6s. 2d. per cent, per annum, as computed in
the above scale ; but if the monies are bought in at par, the
loss will be £21. 9s. Ofcf. ¦§ per cent, per annum.
Average present rent per acre, £1. 6s. Ofd. g
Average Tithe per acre in relation to the above present rent
3s. a^d. If
Average tithe as per clause 27 in the proposed bill, in the same
relation, 2s. 10;^rf. i in the pound.
It is perfectly obvious, that if a commutation bill be adopted,
a. separate valuation of each tithe property ought to take place,
and that upon the principle of tithe property, which is the value
of the produce and not the rent.

92
some scheme of confiscation of the lawful pro
perty of spiritual persons, as is indeed the
principle of this bill, I am sure no good can
come of it, for the blessing of God never yet did,
and never will, rest on evil and dishonest things.
Sin will ever find out nations as well as indivi
duals. This is Jehovah's decree, and nations
can no more reverse it than individuals.
You say, you Avant ministers to do something
on Church reform at once. Now if I were to
ask you for a tangible definition of your Avishes
on Church reform, I am sure you would give it
me in the substance of your former words, that
a faithful minister might be given to every
parish. You would never think that a mere
reform of the pi^operty of the Church, the pounds
shillings and pence reform of ministers, could
effect this. Oh ! pardon me, my dear  whom
1 love wdth the affection of an honest man, when
I say that I grieve over this part of your letter,
because I fear that you have no sight of the
true character of Government and the Legisla
ture, and therefore of their utter incompetency
to effect Church reform, the true reform you
want, which is the saving of souls by the instru
mentality of faithful ministers.
But do not imagine that I have the slightest
idea that my scheme of reformation, or any
other similar one which takes Scripture for its
basis, and the salvation of souls for its object,
will ever be effected.

Nor, if it were effected, would it destroy
dissent. Dissent is the natural principle of
unconverted man, which the purest church-
form can never uproot. A church-form, how
ever pure and scriptural, is but the letter, the
flesh, the scaffolding, the outward thing. The
Spirit, the Temple, the inner thing, is beyond
its power, nay, beyond its province. You see
this truth exemplified every where in Scrip
ture, in the midst of the full shining out of
God from his own forms. You see it in the
dissent of Cain, Korah and his party, Hyme
neus, Philetus, Alexander, Demas, Diotrephes,
and others. You see it in the cause given for
it in 1 John ii. 19, 20, " they went out from us,
but they were not of us, for if they had been of
us, they would no doubt have continued with us,
but they went out, that they might be made
manifest that they were not all of us, but ye
have an unction from the Holy One." To destroy
dissent, you must convert all men; all men must
have an unction from the Holy One. To bring
all men to the one faith of God, you must
bring all men under the energy of the One
Spirit. To bring all men to the one Truth,
you must bring all men to be born again, and
taught of the One Spirit of Truth.
Now, this is not God's purpose in the pre
sent dispensation. This is reserved for that glo
rious period prophesied of in the Word, when
all shall know him, from the least to the great-

94
est, Jer. xxxi. 34, Heb. viii. 11, and when
the knowledge of him shall cover the earth as
waters cover the sea. And that shall be, when
our Lord comes back in his glory, to take to
himself his great power and reign for ever
and ever, (whose right it is,) and the kingdoms
of this world shall become the kingdoms of our
Lord and his Christ, Rev. xi. 15, 16, 17 — when
the glorified One comes to destroy sin and evil,
and shut up the author of them. Rev. xx. 2, 3,
and to gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them that do iniquity, and cast
them into a furnace of fire, Matt. xiii. 41, 42 —
when the revealed One comes to take ven
geance on them that knAiw not God, and obey
not the gospel, 2 Thes. i. 8, and the Lord shall
be King over all the earth, and there shall be
ONE Lord, and his name one, Zech. xiv. 9.
This is now a dispensation of election, and will
continue so till the Lord comes, and never can
run into universality of salvation, which is the
effect of the universality of the faith in the one
NAME of the ONE LoRD, at that blessed period.
The notion of universal knowledge of God,
faith, salvation, happiness, in this dispensation,
is the dream of ignorant, unsanctified philo
sophy, and of unscriptural evangelicalism in
the church and out of it ; and is a melancholy
proof, that Satan uses both ends of his stick to
work out the same lie against God and his
Christ, and that the mere letter of the word,

95
to which this unscriptural evangelicalism ever
appeals, can no more give light and life, than
the philosophy which never appeals to the
word, but that both will kill, 2 Cor. iii. 6. It
is the Spirit that giveth life — and the Church
man, formal or evangelical, with his forms and
his letter of the word, and the Dissenter, with
his forms and his letter of the word, are equally
without the Spirit, " clouds without water, car
ried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth,
without fruit, twice dead," Jude 12. This is
now a dispensation of election, and nothing
can make it otherwise. The Lord is now
taking out of the Gentiles, a people for his
name. Acts xv. 14; which when he has effected,
according to his pre-ordaining purpose, and
when his last pre-ordained child has been
born and made meet for his inheritance, the
Son of Man shall come with power and great
glory, to gather together his elect from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other. Matt. xxiv. 31, and to bring in that
dispensation of universal faith, salvation, and
happiness, of which the Scriptures speak with
an unvarying and glorious testimony.
I have not the faintest idea that a true re
formation will ever take place. For I believe
God. And so I believe, that " in the last
days," to which the Scripture finger-posts*
* Such as, among many, many others. Matt. xxiv. 11 — 14,
" And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many

90
tell us we are come, men will be every where,
nationally and in the mass, what the Holy
Ghost says by Paul they will be, " lovers of
their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas
phemers, disobedient to parents, (of whom the
King is the chief,) unthankful, unholy, without
natural affection, truce-breakers, false-accusers.

 and this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all
the (yospel) world, for a witness unto all nations, (as fulfilling
by our Bibles and Missionaries going every where,) and then
shall the end come ;" Rev. xiv. 6 — 8, " And I saw another
angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel
to preach unto them that dwell on the (gospel) earth, and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with
a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of
his judgment is come .... and there followed another angel,
saying, Babylon (Papal-Infidel-Antichristian Christendom, civil
and ecclesiastical) is fallen, is fallen ;" Rev. xvi. 12 — 15, " And
the sixth angel poured out his via) upon the great river
Euphrates, (the Turkish dynasty,) and the water thereof was
dried up, (the power thereof gradually wasted away,) that the
way of the kings of the East might be prepared, (that the
return of the Jews to their old land, now belonging to the Turks,
might be made ready) ; and 1 saw three unclean spirits, like
frogs, come out of the mouth of the Dragon, (the despotic demon
of heathen, superstitious Paganism,) and out of the mouth of
the Beast, (the Liberal-Infidel Demon,) and out of the mouth
of the False Prophet, (the Papal Demon,) for they are the
spirits of devils, working miracles, (signs and wonders of great
physical and intellectual might,) which go forth unto the kings
of the (gospel) earth, and of the whole (gospel) world, to gather
them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, (the
battle of Armageddon) ; Behold I (Jesus) come as a thief ;"

97
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are
good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God, having a
form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof," 2 Tim. iii. 1—5. And so do I see it.
The tide of Liberalism has set in, and is over
flowing all society, political and national, with
its scripturally-marked characteristics of sel
fishness, covetousness, boasting, pride, blas
phemy, insubordination to authority, ingratitude,
unholiness, contempt of natural affection, dis-
regard of national compacts, lying spirit of ac
cusation, unruliness, ferocity, scorn of good men,
rebellion, headiness, high-mindedness, love of the
flesh and the world — and yet covered over with
a high profession of religion. What are all the
popular questions of the day, and the persons
who raise them, and the objects which are in
volved in them, whether in politics or religion,
but so many unmistakeable illustrations of this
very picture ? And I believe, the progress
will be as I read it, that " evil men and se-

Rev. xvi. 12 — 15, " And the ten horns which thou sawest are
ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive
power as kings one hour with the (Liberal-Infidel Beast) —
these (of whom one, Louis Philippe of France, has manifestly
risen, and perhaps others, as Don Pedro of Portugal, and
Leopold of Belgium,) have one mind, and shall give their power
and strength to the Beast — these shall make war with the Lamb,
and the Lamb shall overcome them, (with the brightness of his
coming,) for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings." H

9^8
ducers will wax w^orse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived," ver. 13. And I believe
the end will be as I read it, that " that wicked
one (the Infidel Antichrist,) shall be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and shall destroy with the bright
ness of his coming (the tnanifestation of his
presence,) tti stti^oveio tjjc n-apovaiag avrs," 2 ThcS.
ii. 8.
Is it possible, that Society, so overflowed,
can sanction and recognize the principles of
God ? It may profess a religion of some kind
or religions of all kinds, and so have a form of
godliness, — it may do so in the Church, or it
may dissent and do so. And it shall do so; and
this very form of godliness will do its work in
blinding men's eyes and keeping them in the
Avorld and in the flesh, and entangling them in
the meshes of liberalism, and they will send
forth the cry of ' reform of the Church, and re
form of the world, and a new and beautiful or
der of things by their reforms.' But the Lord
has written concerning them, " Shall I not visit
for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this 1 A
wonderful and horrible thing is committed in
the land ; the prophets prophesy falsely, and
the priests bear rule by their means, and my
people love to have it so, and what will ye do in
the END thereof?" Jer. v. 29—31. For they
are the persons spoken of by our Lord when he

99
spoke of their prototypes, in Matt, xxiii.,* who
will hate and persecute the Lord's prophets and
wise men and scribes, ver. 34, till he repeats
upon them the awful destruction of Jerusalem,
ver. 37, 38.
Men start away from this. But I ask. Is
Scripture ever to be applied? Is it something
* " All their works they do to be seen of men, .... they love
the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the syna
gogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men,
Rabbi, Rabbi . . . Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypo
crites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men, for
ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are en
tering to go in ; Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypo
crites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and for pretence make
long prayers, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye com
pass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is
made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than your
selves . . . Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites !
for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but
within they are full of extortion and excess . . . Woe unto you.
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited
sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are
within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness, even
so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity ... Ye serpents, ye generation
of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ? Wherefore,
behold I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and
some of them ye shall kill . . . and scourge . . . and persecute
. . . O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have ga
thered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chick
ens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, your house is
left unto you desolate," ver, 5 — 38.
H 2

100
to be held at a distance and gazed at and talked
about, or is it to be brought near and handled ?
Is it a mere brutum fulmen, wasting itself in air
and emptiness, or is it to be brought out in
application to shew men the everlasting truths
of God concerning him ? Then do I say, that
this is the Scripture description of the liberal
ism of the last days, and of the people over
spread by it, and of their fate. And then do I
say, do not imagine that a real reformation of
the Church is at hand, or can be effected. Who
of such a people wants it? Who asks for it?
Cast your thoughts over the distinct groupes,
who make up the vast mass of the liberals of
the land. Are they not the Dissenters of all
casts, the Papists, the Socinians, the Infidels,
and the Latitudinarian Churchmen, who pa
tronize them ? Which of these desire the real
reformation of the Church ? Are they not wise
enough in their generation to know, that if the
Church were reformed, their craft would be in
danger to be set at nought, and their great
goddess liberalism be despised, and her mag
nificence destroyed ; and do they not all with
one voice, and in the fulness of wrath cry out,
' Great is our Diana, whom all the world wor-
shippeth, let the Church be cast down ?' And does
the formal Churchman want a real Scriptural
reform ? He is wedded to his forms and abuses,
and has but little other idea of a Church than
of a building and ceremonies, to which all who

101
belong are Churchmen, and all who do notlaelong
are Dissenters. But of the salvation of souls
and the life in the spirit, he has no conception,
and therefore sees no necessity for changes
tending to produce them. Who then are left to
desire this reformation? Only a small over
looked and despised remnant, who sigh and cry
for the abominations of the land in the Church
and in dissent, whose voice, like the Lords to
Elijah in the wilderness, is not in the wind, nor
in the earthquake, nor in the fire of religious or
political convulsion, but is still and small, and
little heard in the turmoil and din of the world,
political or religious, and whose eye is fixed on
yonder spot in the wide waters, which, now hardly
seen for the intervening crowds of gay and weal
thy vessels, will grow into the glorious appear
ing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
No — the nation, now in full career on the
headlong torrent of liberalism and hastening to
its doom, does not desire the Scriptural re
formation of the Church. And Avhen you say,
you wish Ministers to do something on Church
reform, of what manner of men are you speak
ing ? Is it not of the men, who have launched
the nation on this mad torrent, and now can
scarcely keep it from dashing on the breakers
of infidelity and revolution? Of the men who
profess to rule and act according to the peo
ple's wishes, and use no rudder but the people's
Avill ? Will ihey reform the Church? Can they!

102
Have they the light of the Truth to give them
the power to do it ? Have they the love of the
Truth to give them the will ? Nay, they care
not for the Truth. That is, they care no more
for it, than they do for Popery, Socinian
ism, or dissent of any cast — they care for all
equally, and they throw the Truth into one
common heap with the rest, and bid the people
choose what they like. Will they reform the
Church according to God's commandments or
the people's ? Put the question honestly. Do
they seek to please men or God in their re
forms ? Do they search the Scriptures, that
they may know what pleases God ? You and I
speak of saving and feeding souls. Do they ?
We speak of having faithful ministers in every
parish. They strive to please evil men and
Dissenters, by railing at such, and fawning on
those who hate such. We speak of a reforma
tion that shall go to the souls of men. They
speak of a reform that goes only to the property
of the Church. All their reforms are of the
same kind, earthly, sensual. Their idea of
doing good is to do good to the carnal perish
able part of man. This world's good — temporal
prosperity, mental cultivation — riches, educa
tion — lifting the poor out of their condition, but
leaving them in spiritual poverty, — this is
their notion of reform. It is all of the world ;
and if they could fill the world with temporal
and mental good, so that every man in it could

103
revel to his poor heart's content in the lust of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life, that question would still stand out
against them in all its awfulness, " What is a
man profited, if he shall gain the Avhole world
and lose his own soul?" Matt. xvi. 26.
Their church reform will be of this kind. It
will be the taking from ministers the property
which was given and bequeathed to God that
souls might be saved, to put it into the pockets
of laymen, as is done by the Irish and English
tithe bills ; or to lay part of it out on education,
popish, protestant, and dissenting, and on idola
trous priests, as is about to be done in Ireland ;
or the taking from one minister, who they think
has too much, to give it to one who they think
has too little ; or some consolidation scheme, by
Avhich several parishes will be thrown together,
to provide a maintenance out of them all for one
minister, instead of bringing the church lay
property into church uses, and providing a mi
nister for each ; or acts against pluralities and
non-residence of incumbents, which will provide
no remedy for the evils of ' No ministers,' or
faithless ones. Their reforms will be of no
other or higher character. The ecclesiastical
commission you speak of is only concerning
money. And do you believe that such schemes
can save souls ? Do you believe, that faithful
ministers will be provided, and souls saved, by
spoliating the God-given property of the church,

104
or by changing the God-appointed means of
saving souls, the preaching of the Word for
educational knowledge ? Do you believe, that
either the minister who has £100 a-year taken
from him, or the minister who gains it, will
preach the Word and do his duty one jot the
more faithfully for it ? Can you believe, that a
money reform will save souls ? O blindness in all
who believe it ! blindness of the kind spoken of
in Scripture, when, hearing, men hear and under
stand not, and seeing they see and perceive not,
for their hearts are waxed gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes, and hearwith
their ears, and understand with their hearts !
But you cannot believe it. Your cry for faithful
ministers, that souls may be saved and fed, takes
you out of the class of those who believe it ; and
I hope — O, my dear Sir, how earnestly do I hope
it ! — that your heart may ache with mine, that
the ark of the Lord should be touched by men,
whose touch profanes it ; that the liberals and
infidels of the Ministry, and the liberals and
infidels of the Legislature, should lay their
hands upon it ! And are these words true ?
" The carnal mind is enmity against God,"
Rom. viii. 7. And are these true? "The na
tural man receiveth not the things of the spirit
of God  neither can he know them,"
1 Cor. ii. 14. Then is the question settled. These
men have not the spiritual power to reform the

105
church — they have not even the moral power.
Then will they do it ? Never, till they take the
Bible, God's depository of all the rules of civil
and church government, in their hands to legis
late by. Will they do that ? Never, till they
acknowledge the God of the Bible j to be the
only true God. Will they do that ? Never, till
they see him come in the clouds, and he smites
them like Uzzali for their error, and they die by
the ark of God, 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7, weeping, and
wailing, and hoAvling to the mountains and
rocks, " Fall on us and hide us from the face of
him that sitteth on the throne, and from the
wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his
wrath is come," Rev. vi. 16, 17.
The Lord's searching question is now going-
through the land, ' Who is on the Lord's side ?
Who?' And his message to all, in high places
and in low, is, " Come out and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you, and will be a father unto
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty," 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.
Blessed promise ! That day must tell the value
of it, that glorious but fearful day, when the
Lord Almighty shall make up his jewels, and
spare them that fear him, as a man spareth his
own son that serveth him ; and they and all
men shall discern between the righteous and
the wicked, between him that serveth God and
him that serveth him not, Mai. iii. 16 — 18. In

106
that day when He appeareth — that day of the
refiner's fire and the reaper's sickle — that day
of in-gathering and out-casting, when the se
paration which began in time shall continue in
eternity, and the great gulf between heaven
and hell shall be but as the extension into the
boundless for ever of that unpassable line,
which divided in their earthly existences the
children of the kingdom of heaven from the
children of the kingdom of hell — in that day of
every man's unchangeable destiny, when the
Lord comes forth to fix it — Avho shall stand ?
He, who now — now in the day of the Lord's
holding in and calling out — hath ears to hear
his voice, says, ' Speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth,' bows down before the message, brings
into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ, comes out, and is separate, and touches
not the unclean thing. Blessed is the promise !
And blessed is the child of promise ! For he
is a child of God, " no more a servant, but a
son, and if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ," Gal. iv. 7, and, as a joint-heir with
the first-born among many brethren, he enters
into the joy of his Lord.
And now, my dear  , I would close this
long correspondence with the prayer which
Paul prayed concerning this day of the Lord's
coming, for some whose faith grew exceedingly,
and whose love toward each other abounded,
that our God Avould count you worthy of this

107
calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his
goodness, and the work of faith with power,
that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be
glorified in you and you in him, according to
the grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus
Christ, 2 Thess. i. 11, 12.
Your unworthy, but ever affectionate
friend and servant in Him.

Changes in the Ministry have been going on
upon questions involving the principles and truths
of God. Not for the better, but for the worse.
Every turn of the wheel only serves to throw off
another portion of right principle. Let no child
of God be looking for changes for the better, but
letihm be well instructed in the Word, and wait
patiently and assuredly for the unfolding of the
Lord's purposes according to the Word. The
Spirit of the age, as one, who so lately fell before
it, called the God-denying Spirit abroad all over
the earth, will allow no changes for the better.

108
Truly did he call it a Spirit. It is a Spirit. It is
"the Spirit" of the age gone forth with his fellow-
spirits unto the kings and powers and people of the
earth and of the whole world, gone forth out of
the mouth of the Liberal- Infidel Beast to do his
master's universal work, Rev. xvi. 13, 14. It is
" the Spirit," Avho will give power to the presump
tuous and self-willed dreamers, that despise go
vernment and speak evil of dignities, and will cause
them to walk upon the high places and trouble the
heritageof God. It is " the Spirit," who, if the Con
servatives, with whom is political truth, Avere
conducting the Government to-morrow, would so
press on them with the power of the filthy dream
ers without, that, not being rooted in spiritual
truth, they would either yield to him, as they did
in the Papist Relief Bill, or be soon swept away
by him. It is ¦•' the Spirit" of the Father of lies,
who was a murderer from the beginning, sending
forth the promise of great earthly good to poor
sensual man, ever minding the things of the flesh
and of the earth, and poor man shall follow the
Boaster's bubble till it is burst by the thunder of
the Lord's dreadful day. It is " the Spirit," who
gives out the lie in the mouth of the world's pro
phesiers of good, and makes them break out with
taunts and smitings upon the Lord's prophet of
evil ; and stirs up the world to hate him and feed
him with bread and water of affliction till the
good come to pass; — but the good will not come
to pass, but as Ahab listened to the lying spirit

109
in his prophesiers and went up and fell at Raraoth-
gilead, so will the world listen to the lie of " the
Spirit" of the age in the mouth of all its prophe
siers, and go up and fall in the battle of that great
day of God Almighty.
Above all, let no child of God, deceived by
appearances and flattering promises, be found
aiding and abetting the rising Antichrist. Let
him mark the triumphant progress of " the Spirit."
The Papist Relief Bill brought us into the con
dition and guilt of a Papal nation before God, in
asmuch as it admitted Antichrist in his spiritual
form into the Government of the country. The
Reform Bill next brought us into the condition
and guilt of a Liberal-Infidel nation before God,
inasmuch as it admitted Antichrist in his civil
form into the government, by the principle of Vox
Populi, Vox Dei. Since this completed guilt in
our two-fold standing of Church and State, the
onward march of " the Spirit" has been steady and
unceasing. The latest manifestation of his tri
umphant domination is the sting, which by a
righteous retribution the cockatrices, hatched into
life and power by the two bills, have given to
some among his followers, who formed and fos
tered the bills, because they shrunk from
the next advance upon the yawning gulf, just
opening upon their startled sight. His march will
be onward, steady, and, although from temporary
incidental causes occasionally checked, unceas
ing. The present advancing step is the giving

no
up Ireland to Popery, the spiritual Antichrist,
Avhich the Father of lies calls, and teaches the fol
lowers of " the Spirit" to call, reforms in the Irish
Church. Others and others will follow in due
time and order, to bring on the full revelation of
the many-formed and many-coloured Lawless One,
whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, together with all to whom God shall
send strong delusion that they may believe the
lie of the Lawless Antichrist, 2 Thess. ii. 3 — 12.
Oh ! let no child of God be found in the wake
of this latter-day Lawless One, so soon to be re
vealed. " The Spirit" of the age, who is his spirit,
has at present cast his shadow over many of the
children of God, and they are walking in it. But
the Lord shall deliver them. He has set his ever
lasting love upon them, and he cannot leave them
to be consumed and damned with those who be
lieve not the truth but have pleasure in unrigh
teousness. He hath from the beginning chosen
them to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, and hath called
them by the gospel to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ; and so it is that they,
that are with the Lamb in the day he comes forth
to overcome, are "called and chosen and faith
ful," Rev. xvii. 12 — 14. Nevertheless, the veil
is yet upon their hearts and over their eyes. Let
them take heed to themselves, and repent and
turn to the Lord, and come out and be separate,
or their work shall be burned, and they suffer loss.

Ill
though they be saved themselves as by fire, for
the day shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall
try every man's Avork of what sort it is, 1 Cor,
iii. 13—15.
August, 1834.

the end.

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