CHAPTER I.

PRINCIPLES OF TRUTH, CLAIMING THE ATTENTION OF CHRISTIANS OF EVERY DENOMINATION.

I ADDRESS myself to Christians of all denominations, or rather to Christians simply, without regarding their sectarian distinctions; but in doing so, I am far from thinking that the principles I am stating will act corporately, or upon bodies of men, great or small, in any section of the professing church, in its present much divided and distracted state. God can give what effect he pleases to the testimony of his truth; and he often does give an effect but little expected by his children. Still I do not, in my own mind, anticipate any great effect from what I am called to write, upon any but individual enquiring minds. The power of conscience is not diffused through organized bodies, or associations of men, but dwells in the insulated mind alone. And thus, if at all, it must, by the presentation of the truth, be met "by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience, in the sight of God." And I do believe, before the Lord, that this appeal, however feeble in itself, will not be made in vain to the hearts and consciences of the children of God that are at the present hour so painfully separated from one another,

and scattered abroad throughout the various divisions into

which the spirit of carnality has rent the one Church of God (1 Cor. iii. 3, 4). Well do I know, that many are daily weeping in the bitterness of their souls over the present low, divided, and jarring state of the Church in this country, and sighing for a return to "a more excellent way." Doubtless there are many persons of true piety in every denomination of professing Christians, that care very little about abstract principles, as long as they continue mere abstractions, which is too often the case; yet who feel, to the grief of their souls, the working of practical evil, and would fain deliver themselves from its deadly and deadening power. Many, very many, there are who cannot find any rest for their souls in the existing ecclesiastical systems and arrangements, either in the Establishment, or among the Dissenters, because they cannot find any thing like true pastorship or spiritual oversight in their most approved ministers; nor the most distant approach to any thing like "the communion

*It may save circumlocution, as well as give definiteness to my meaning, if I say, once for all, I employ the term "minister" in its popular sense. Its definite and proper meaning is simply servant, and its being used to designate exclusively those who "preach the word," is a most unscriptural limitation of the term. The term ministry, in the Church of God, is now applied almost entirely to preaching; whereas in the Word of God there is no service in the Church that is not designated by this term. "There are diversidifferences of min

ties of gifts, but the same Spirit: and there are istries, but the same Lord" (1 Cor. xii. 4, 5). The ministry of the Evangelist is quite distinct from the ministry of the Pastor, and the ministry of " ruling" in the Church is (or may be) distinct from both. Evidently, in apostolic times, it was not necessarily connected with the ministry of the Word at all; as we learn from 1 Tim. v. 17, "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine."

of saints" amongst those with whom they are outwardly joined in the professed fellowship of the Gospel; nor scarcely any of the fruits of love in the spirit and walk of those who are called "brethren in Christ." But what is religion without love? What, emphatically, is the religion of Christ without love? "Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (1 John iv. 7, 8). "He that loveth not his brother (his Christian brother) abideth in death" (1 John iii. 14).

In speaking these things, I desire to be understood as referring to systems, and their practical working, rather than to the men who are connected with them. For I do not know that I have a controversy with any man on earth; certainly not with any man-especially not with any Christian-apart from the principles he holds. If his principles are in accordance with the word of God, I desire to be entirely one with him; if they appear to me to be contrary to that word, I must at all risk and hazard refuse, and, as the Lord may help me, oppose them.

The feelings of restlessness and dissatisfaction, to which I have alluded as experienced by Christians in connexion with the existing state of things in the professing church, and of which I have been made largely to partake inyself, are by no means confined to the people as distinguished from their ministers. For there is no one who has enjoyed in any degree the confidence of brethren in the ministry that has not known something of the deep sorrow of heart, and the painful anxiety with which the most spiritual amongst them contemplate the present state of

things around them; and also the forebodings that are experienced when viewing the steady, but rapid rising, on every hand, of the waters of change and convulsion, and the pointing of the present movements of society, in their apprehended bearing on the interests of religion and the Church of God. The most sanguine of the ministers, however, with whom I have been associated (I mean the ministers of Independent churches) do indeed expect that the shock which has been recently given to dissent (to nominal dissent at least) through the agitation of the question of Establishments and " Voluntaryism," will, in the course of a few years, be recovered, through the evangelical clergy going into "high church" principles,* and the pious part of their flocks seeking, as heretofore, for simplicity of worship and communion amongst the Dissenters.

There is also another ground of hope, that through the prevalence of what are termed "liberal principles," in politics, many will ultimately be brought to unite in their religious associations with the men who are like-minded in the principles of their political creed, rather than with those by whom they are politically opposed. Whether these expectations are likely to be realized; or whether there is any basis, in truth, for these hopes or not; or

Which in fact are the principles of Popery. And, indeed, the whole mass of the Establishment seems to be fast verging into the errors of the Papacy; while the worldliness of the Dissenters and their keen pursuit after political influence and importance, but too surely mark their tendency and progress, as a body, toward the liberalism and infidelity, that, in conjunction with Popery, will soon assume an unmasked ascendancy in our land. I, of course, except individuals of worth and piety, who are known to me; and many more whom I do not know.

whether, if they were realized to their fullest extent, it could be deemed a favourable augury for the cause of religion and the true Church of God, may admit of serious doubt. All that I would trust myself to say on the point is, I wish I could think that Independency, or any other portion of the dissenting body, were so in accordance with the Word of God, and so under the guidance of the Spirit of God, in its principles and practice, as to warrant the hope of its becoming an asylum, or ark of safety, for souls fleeing out of Babylon, and escaping from the deluge of worldliness, which is on all sides pouring in upon every section of the professing church. In speaking these things of the Dissenters, and especially of the Independents, I would be very far from supplying arguments against them to be employed by the advocates of Establishments. For I deem, most certainly, from the Word of God, that the Ecclesiastical Establishment of this country is an entirely worldly system, bearing a religious name. Of the Church of England, as a system, it may with truth be affirmed, that the church is the world, and the world is the church. And that is all I wish to say about it, except that I sincerely love all the saints of God connected with it, and wish them in a safer and more simple position; where, in dissociation from evil, and separatedness from the world, they may be "like unto men that wait for their Lord."

If the question now before the Church of God were a mere question of ceremonies, such as the wearing or not wearing a gown, the preaching from a pulpit or otherwise, or some matter of mere outward arrangement, I, at least, should feel quite disposed to hold my tongue.