FIRST. Give an outline of its principles. The whole fabric of Dissent rests on the two following propositions :

1. The Holy Scriptures are the sole authority and sufficient rule in matters of religion, whether relating to doctrine, duty, or church government. THE BIBLE, AND THE Bible ALONE, IS THE RELIGION OF DISSENTERS. We own no other standard, we allow of no other, and resist all attempts to impose any other upon us. No plea of antiquity, of civil or ecclesiastical authority, of numbers, of expediency, of taste, or of the importance of uniformity, has the smallest weight with us, since neither the writings of fathers, nor the decree of councils, nor the acts of senates, nor the concurrent opinions of divines, much less, if possible, the bulls of popes, or the edicts of kings, can, individually or unitedly, frame one single article of faith, or decree one religious ceremony, which, on their authority, is binding upon the conscience of the most illiterate man in existence. To set up any other authority over conscience than the Word of God, is treason against the throne of Christ, and they who submit to it are accomplices in the conspiracy.

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2. The second proposition on which Nonconformity rests, is, that it is every man's indefeasible right, and incumbent duty, to form and to follow his own opinion of the meaning of the Word of God. He may consult the works of the living or the dead; he listen with deference to the arguments of others, who have greater abilities, and better means of acquiring knowledge, than himself; but his ultimate reason for receiving any and every opinion must be, not thus saith the church, but thus saith the Bible; not thus have my forefathers worshipped God, but thus am I directed by God himself to worship Him. We must try creeds, catechisms, articles, and forms of government by the Bible, and form our own conclusion of their accordance with that unerring standard. say not we may do it, but we must; it is not merely a privilege to be enjoyed, but a duty to be performed. The people, as well as their teachers, are commanded to "search the Scriptures; to prove all things, and to hold fast that which is

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good." Our understanding is given to us for this purpose, and as we must stand or fall for eternity by our religious opinions and practice, we ought not to believe by proxy, since we cannot be saved by proxy. As no man, nor body of men, has the right, nor can have it, to set up any other standard of religious opinion than the Bible, so neither can they have any right to impose upon us their interpretation of this; for if they had, it would in fact be setting up another authority. The doctrines you believe, the duties you perform, the ceremonies you observe, the form of church government you adopt, must all be drawn pure from the Bible, and drawn thence by yourself; aided, it may be, by the wisdom, but not compelled by the authority of others. The denomination in the religious world with which you connect yourself, and the minister to whom you entrust the oversight of your soul's affairs, are to be chosen by yourselves. No man has either a moral or legal right to claim to be your religious instructor without your own consent. In all matters which we have to learn, docility is our first duty, and freedom of thought is the next; and if the most unbounded exercise of this freedom from human authority be once resigned, we are liable to become the slaves of those whose attempts at usurpation are the most subtle, however widely they may have departed from the Word of God. Our reverence for the Scripture cannot be too profound, nor our submission to its authority too unresisting; nor, on the other hand, can we be too jealous and determined in our resistance of every other yoke. I call upon you, therefore, my dear friends, to make yourselves intimately acquainted with the Word of God. Search the Bible, and determine to follow it as your guide wherever it may lead you. Do your uttermost to raise the cry, "To the Bible," till it becomes the universal demand, 'to the Bible, to the Bible." I would not say, "Down with creeds, catechisms, and articles," but I will say, “Up with the Bible." The creed, the church, the articles, that cannot stand the most searching scrutiny of this, is based on falsehood, and amidst the floods and tempests that are rising

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around it will be swept away, and perish from the earth; and those only will remain, and they will remain, that are founded, not upon the quicksand of human opinion, but upon the rock of Holy Scripture.

In the view of Protestant Dissenters, a church of Christ is a spiritual, voluntary, and independent community, distinct in its nature from all secular associations of men, separated from them by the peculiarity of its object and its laws, and neither subject to their direction, nor amenable to their authority. It is a kingdom in this world, but not of this world.

Such are our principles viewed abstractly: I shall,

SECONDLY, consider the conclusions to which they lead us on the subject of Establishments in general, and the Church of England in particular. By a religious Establishment we mean the act of the supreme government of a country in fixing upon a religious creed and form of public worship to be taught to the people, paying a class of ministers to teach it, and drawing the funds necessary for its support from the resources of the country at large. This is the most simple notion of Establishments, and the one adopted by Paley; but even in this view of them they appear to Nonconformists to be objectionable;

1. Because they are unscriptural.

The Word of God is the supreme test by which they are to be tried: if they cannot stand this, the most plausible reasonings that can be advanced for them on the ground of expediency are quite beside the mark, and utterly without weight. Our demand is, “to the law and to the testimony;" for by this alone will we consent that the question shall be decided. I affirm, then, there is not a single passage of the Christian Scriptures which, fairly interpreted, contains any command to civil governors to provide religious instruction for their subjects, or that furnishes any rule by which such an important duty is to be performed: if there be, in what book is it to be found? let it be quoted that we may consider it. As to the argument which is founded upon the Constitution of

the Jewish Theocracy, we consider it so irrelevant and inapplicable, that the very attempt to bring it forward in support of a Christian institute betrays at once the weakness of the cause. We view the Theocracy as altogether a divine institute, which, when it was set aside by the coming of Christ, was never designed to be imitated, and is altogether incapable of imitation. And as to the allusions made in the prophecies to the subjection rendered by kings to the church of Christ, they are so vague, and the descriptions of their services so remote from the ideas of legislation and domination, that we cannot allow ourselves for a moment to imagine that they contain any proof in support of a State religion. If then we leave out these, the Word of God is silent, at least as to any command, direction, or sanction. Not a syllable is found, even of an allusive import, touching this high function of providing a religious creed and worship for a nation. Directions, and those very minute, are given for every, the lowest office in the church, but not a syllable is said about the duties or even existence of this the highest. Nor is it enough to say that the Rulers of that day were Jewish or Pagan, for on that account the more need was there to call upon them to embrace Christianity, and set it up among their subjects. Besides, had not our Lord the gift of prophecy, and did He not foresee that kings would at length become Christians? And yet neither He nor His apostles left any directions for their legislative interference on behalf of religion. I think that in reference to such a subject, silence is proof of no little strength against Establishments. But the Scripture is not silent as to language of condemnation, if it is in that of recommendation. The sublime and simple declaration of Christ before Pilate is decisive, "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered up to the Jews." It is not a kingdom set up by human authority, but by that which is divine; not composed of worldly men, but spiritual ones; not established for temporal objects, but eternal ones; not sustained by secular power, but that which is from heaven. It

is a community distinct from all earthly ones, and apart by itself; a cause that needs not, asks not, admits not, the coarse and rude instruments of secular power or policy for its establishment, support, and progress, but is entirely a spiritual community. Not merely, not a kingdom for temporal purposes, but which is not set up or supported by worldly governments. The establishment of Christianity by law is a complete departure from the very spirit and genius of the New Testament.

But Establishments not only change the scriptural method of propagating and supporting Christianity, from voluntary to compulsory payments; they change the very nature of the church from a voluntary society to a political and involuntary association. Compare the State Church of this kingdom, including its crowned head, its mitred prelates, its spiritual peers, its graduated hierarchy, its secular legislature, its spiritual courts, its lay chancellors, its gorgeous cathedrals and their splendid ritual, its tithes with the soldiers to collect them, and its church rates with the king's officers to enforce them ;--I say compare this system with the spiritual, simple, voluntary, mild, persuasive, benevolent, unsecular religion of the New Testament; the religion of Him, who though "he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant;" and whose total disconnexion from secular authority, and entire destitution of worldly pomp and glory, seemed at once and for ever to teach that His religion was spiritual in its nature, a thing to derive neither its glory nor its support from the kings of the earth, but from the heavenly arm that sustained it. How dissimilar is the state religion in its forms and circumstances from that taught by the fishermen of Galilee; which was set up not in the court of Augustus at Rome, but in the upper room at Jerusalem; and which consists, not in meats and drinks; not in rites and ceremonies; but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

2. Religious establishments are unjust, at least in all those