God had given them; and they would alter their national compact into some other form; for which, perhaps, a voluntary association is not a bad name. And thus a mighty power was organised amidst God's own free people, which took away Jewish liberty; not unlike that which afterwards grew up in the christian church, when Constantine was called to grace the chair of state in God's house; and an ecclesiastical council was made his spiritual cabinet, to frame a human Creed as the rule of his ghostly dominion. That very power which still exists, wherever men exercise the fearful prerogative of making rules of faith and manners for God's people; which, whether they think them of paramount or equal authority with the Bible, or not-and we know full well, that no protestant will dare to represent them as paramount-are yet made the great and distinguishing tests of christian char acter. This mighty power, erected in Judea, accomplished there, what it will accomplish any where, and what it has accomplished in the christian church;-it either degrades and crushes the spirit of man, or it ends in division.

Under the New Testament, the Holy Spirit never adverts to this principle of human liberty, but with an intention to increase its force, and seat it more firmly in the human breast. Hear the apostles speak of the church, and of their own relations to her members:- "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry; God's building:-Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow

citizens with the saints, and of the household of God: and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves; and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made you bishops, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.-And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Can any -man perceive here any thing like our voluntary associations, or a number of ecclesiastical bodies, totally distinct from one another, and regulated by human laws? The apostles knew of no such institutions, as sanctioned by divine authority. They always represent the church, as having within herself the principle of her own existence and prosperity, by virtue of her union with Christ her bead; and as wholly independent of the regulations of men. They indeed admit of local divisions; and speak of the church of Corinth, the church of Jerusalem, the church of Rome, the churches of Galatia; but they never describe them as voluntary associations. They are all the church of God, and are all bound together as one great whole, pervaded by one spirit, and fed by the same bread.

Attempts were made to form voluntary associations, but the apostles always frowned upon

them, and severely rebuked all who were engaged in them. Thus in Corinth, professing Christians were very zealous in promoting division. One said I am of Paul; anotherI am of Apollos; a third-I am of Cephas; and a fourth, more towering than all the rest-I am of Christ. Just as we say now a days; I am a Lutheran, I am an Arminian,-I am a Presbyterian, or, I am an Episcopalian. Paul would not accept the honours his party wished to confer upon him; and forbids them all to seek for any human patrons, however exalted their official stations might be. He asks them with a great deal of significance, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye baptised in the name of Paul? Who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth, and he that watereth, are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour." Nor is this all: for Paul could discern none of that superior zeal for purity of doctrine, and godliness of living, growing out of these sectarian divisions, about which we hear so much. On the contrary, he expressly tells the Corinthians, that these things manifested a great deal of childishness and carnality; and that thus the spread of the gospel was interrupted, and the influence of

the truth, hindered. "And I, Brethren," he informs them, "could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with strong meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it; neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?"If Paul had lived in our day, would he not have been reprobated as a grievous heretic; and invited to leave our voluntary associations, as being a very unworthy member? For surely, he would level all our proud distinctions, with a determined spirit, and an impartial hand.

The particular form, in which human authority would be most likely to present her lofty pretensions in the days of the apostles, and from which an opportunity might be derived to usurp a dominion over conscience, would, of course, be afforded by the controversy of the age. Ambition, lust of fame, and love of power, are often found to be the distinguishing attributes of a controversial spirit. In that period of the church, we must look for those men who love to have the pre-eminence, among the zealots in favor of the ceremonial law: and it is in the opposition which the apostles made to them, that we must look for their ideas on spiritual liberty. And with this remark to guide us, we should consider Paul's epistle to the Galatians, a most satisfactory and conclusive argument against

human Creeds: because he is there contending against the approach of human authority, in the form in which it must necessarily be made in that age. Luther seems to have thought, that he could select no better scriptural position, where he might defend the liberty of the human conscience on better terms. To this, however, we have already had occasion to refer, in a previous part of these remarks. And as the inspired author of that epistle, had to contend with the same difficulty under a variety of circumstances, we shall extract the further quotations we think proper to make from other epistles addressed by him to other churches.

He thus exhorts the Colossians. "As yo have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." This is the great object which christians ought always to keep in view. We should continually endeavor to live near to Christ; daily to grow up into his image; habitually to obey his commandments; and confidently to rest our hopes upon him as the only Saviour, and as an all-sufficient Saviour. But we shall not accomplish this moral enterprise, without meeting many difficulties; efforts will be made to corrupt our integrity, and to divert our faith from its great object. The apostle therefore proceeds to put the Colossians on their guard:-"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of