eluded churches are necessarily united for their common vindication, and our liberties, religious and civil, have, therefore, from them the guarantee of an interested co-operation. But when you weaken those churches by magnetis. ing the more potent ones with the Clergy Reserves and thereby drawing them from this christian confederacy, you leave the residue in a helpless and debilitated condition. It is the application of a political maxim to ecclesiastical affairs, "divide and govern." The endowed churches will have an additional bond of union; but it will be of a worldly kind. The English church have long asserted and maintained their exclusive right; and it would be a calumny against that church to assume they have been more pertinacious than will be their new associates. Hence they will combine to maintain the vast estates conferred upon them, because the rights of each can then only be certainly preserved by sustaining the rights of all. They may indulge the utmost acrimony against each other for alleged her. isies, and yet be faithfully banded together to preserve the inviolability of their exclusive tem poralities. They may dispute which church should, as an affair of honor, take rank and precedence, and which should have the largest share, or upon what principle the division should be made; but expect not any concession that such superiority can be claimed by others, or that others could, without sacrilege and crime, invade their vested rights. There is an obvious charm in the operation of these ample donations. Chemists often discover an ingredient which will procure the union of sub stances, mutually repellent; and the grand desideratum is now found out for holding the most transcendent ecclesiastical contrarieties in harmonious solution. Protestants and Roman Catholics, Kirk and Methodists are reduced to gether by the common solvent of clergy reserves; and I verily believe there would be no precipitate from the addition of a little paganism. The wolfe and the lamb, the leopard & the kid seem to mingle together in prophetic harmony. But in this case, it is not so much from a mixture of spirit as of interest. It is not so much from the milk of human kindness as from the satiety of hierarchal participation. They take their seats at the festival of our public lands; and in language not borrowed from the book of Proverbs or the works of Solomon, they "pick the same bone," they "feather themselves together in the same nests," and they feed at the same bread and butter." Much, sir, as I respect many of my Catholic friends, I sincerely believe their church, as they sincerely believe mine, to be in fatal error. Each apprehends with regret, wholly free from unkindness, that the other will be damned. What course does it become us, under this belief, respectively to take? Can I agree to endow the Roman church to enable them the more easily and effectually to propagate the very doctrines against which I protest Can Roman Catholics properly aid the cause of heresies, called damnable, with special ap- Instead of giving these clergy reserves, I am ready and anxious, without fear of present or future consequences, to give them collectively & individually the BIBLE," that they may read, learn, mark and inwardly digest it." But I will not endow error. Nor will I legislate against it, because I heartily believe that the divine truth contains within itself all the necessary elemen's for its own achievements. I would as soon give Clergy Reserves to cheinists to extract sun-beams from cucumbers for the Sun. Remove all artificial obstructions, and light dispels the darkness wherever it shines. But if, invading the empire and prerogative of Heaven, you endow this darkness, and give it legislative locality and habitudes, you, more or less, obstruct the genial ray and eclipse the firmament of truth. Instead of making a State provision for any one or more churches; instead of apportioning the clergy reserves among them with a view of promoting christianity; instead of giving pensions or salaries to ministers, to make them independent of voluntary contributions from the people; I would stud ously avoid that policy, and leave truth unfettered and unimpeded to make her own conquests. Lawyers and Physicians have no clergy reserves. They depend upon the support of the community which benefits by their labors. The professions of law and physic are well represented in this Aseinbly, and bear ample testimony to the sufficient generosity of the people towards them. Will good, pious and evangelical ministers of our holy religion, be likely to fare worse than the physicians of the body or the agents for our temporal affairs? Let gospel ministers, as the scriptures say, live by the gospel; and the very apostolic maxim that the workman is worthy of his hire, implies the performance of duty rewarded temporally by those who impose or receive it. There is no fear the profession will become extinct from want of professors. Was there (any thing Locke may say to the contrary notwithstanding) ever a nation on the earth, however barbarous, without something of a priesthood? The aboriginees of this continent answer in the negative; and the least civilized tribes have their professional functionaries to offer up their occasional sacrifices to the "great spirit." We have had too, from the earliest history of the Province standing evidence to the contrary in the history of the Methodist Episcopal church up to a recent period. That church was planted in this colony without the knowledge or consent of the government. The scattered settlements, otherwise destitute, were every where visited by her itinerant ministry, which increased with the population, and wants of the country, and acquired under Providence, acknowledged distinction for the superiority of their numbers, for the devoted character of their piety, for the fervour of their preaching, for the sanctity of their lives, and for the converting influence so abundantly shed upon their highly-favored ministrations. They were, however, regarded by the government with jealousy and contempt; and subjected to indiguity under vice-regal repulsion and parliamentary investigation. "Methodist" was a term of reproach; and an hon. member of this House was once expelled for methodestically recommending a collection of his friends to live according to the gospel they professed. Amidst contumely and opposition, however, they flourished almost beyond example. Devoted to the gospel, "all other things were added to them;" and perhaps there has not been, since primitive times, more striking evidence of the existence of "a Kingdom not of this world" swayed by a spiritual sceptre.Has the christian community,on the other hand, benefited by the late appropriations of the government to religious uses? or has the prospect brightened before the expected distribution of the clergy reserves? When, therefore, we find the christian church in the first three centuries flourishing against the State, and declinng under its subsequent patronage under Con, stantine; and when we see the same thing verified upon a smaller scale within the borders of our own country, surely we need not hesitate practically to believe the proposition that if truth is let alone it will prevail. Such was the advice of Gamalial; and let not learned members forget he was "a doctor of law." He opposed those whose object it was to support the established errors by punishing those who offered the truth. He fortified his position with striking illustrations, & closed his eloquent and dignified address with the following advice: "And now I say unto you, refrain from those men and let them alone; for if their counsel, or their work be of men, it will come to naught; but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it." Lord Bacon (to the best of my recollection) has somewhere said, "when truth is left alone to grapple with error, who ever knew her worsted in the contest?" But our modern philosophers, instead of condescending to be children of truth, aspire to make truth a child to us, to put her into leading strings, wrap her in swaddling clothes, confine her in the nursery, and smother her with kindness under Acts of Parliament! Truth, however, is not an exotic or a hot house plant. It is indigenous in every country, congenial to every climate and the native of every soil. How can it be otherwise, since it proceeded from him who can be found and worshipped equally in every mountain top, in every valley and in every shade. The course of nature is the course of Providence. It is the practice of every day to confide in it as sufficient to insure the continuance of those bountles which we receive as dependent creatures. Reposing without timid apprehension in a divine superintending care over material things, why sho'd we be distrustful of equal superintending care over spiritual things? Conscious of our inability to direct terrestrial powers, it is Pagan presumption, like Phaeton, to ascend the chariot of the Sun, and drive with fearful temerity round the zodiac of religious truth. Will learned gen. assume to legislate for the clouds? Do, then, your work of superogation. Pass a law for a safety-fund of rain. Tax every man with the precautionary duty of periodically watering an allotted portion of the earth, as pabulum for the sun to distill the balmy dew, to supply the winged vapours of the air, to spread out the cloudy curtain of the sky and seasonably diffuse more genial showers. Does this seem absurd? Open, then, the eyes of the understanding and see that it is not less absurd to usurp the spiritual then the physical throne; not less absurd to assume to govern "a kingdom not of this world," than to govern the clouds for him "who rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm." In the things about us we witness the particularity of Providence, acting nevertheless under the simplicity of a law which is equally the object of our gratitude and admiration. Let us judge of the certainty, simplicity and efficiency with which he can govern his church, by the display of corresponding attributes in He wields his almighty the works of nature. power not less for all that is little, than for all that is great. By the same apparent natural ter. cause we see controlled the waves of the ocean swelling into tides, and the fluctuation of the least ripple upon the surface of a basin of waFrom the same cause we trace the spherical shape of a planet, and of those morning dew drops glittering over the verdant fields like "oriental pearl;" and hence in the house of mourning you see drop after drop, distilled by sorrow, rolling globule after globule down the cheek. Therefore a poet, without indulging in mere poetical license, has justly and beautifully said— "That very law which moulds a tear And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere, And guides the planets in their course." When it is considered that it is the same power that coutrols the stupendous movements of the universe, and the simple effervesence of a mixture, we should learn that the relative terms great and little applied to Him "are terms without meaning;" that His provideuce is equally universal and equally particular; that it is equally conversant with the events of nations and of an individual supplicant; that while it counts the stars of the firmament and the nebule of the milky way, it regards the falling of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of his (Sol. General's) learned head. This particularity of providence in material things affords no apo. logy for a christian's distrust either of his will or ability to dispense the affairs of that spirit al Kingdom which he has himself established and covenanted to maintain for ever. Will learned gentlemen pass a law in behalf of gravitation? Gravitation presents to the mind the vastest and sublimest conception within the compass of the universe.-Whereever we go, yea, whereever our thoughts can reach, this all pervading power extends its illimitable influence. We acknowledge its presence when we truckle a pebble along the ground, or trace the mariner's lead descending the abyss; we feel it in the heaving of the ocean, & recognise from it all the various & modified motions which the material world affords.Even if we leave the earth and wander whereever the imagination may choose to rove thro' boundless space, we find at every step as we travel from planet to planet, and from world to world, this mysterious power, so universally diffused as not to leave a point of space, or a solitary atom of matter unconscious of its presence or dominion. It is every where present and unceasingly active.-With this great truth proved to us to demonstration, can we fail to recognize the greater truth (which this glimpse of the glory of creation was partly intended to illustrate) that he who called all these things into being and upholds them by the word of his power, is also himself every where present and unceasingly active? Can it be difficult to believe of the creator, however wonderful it may be, what we are obliged upon investigation to believe of what he has created? The ancient Psalmist must have had something to supply the place of the illuminations of modern science, when without any knowledge of this all pervading law of gravitation, he thus so sublimely deleniated the corresponding attributes of the God of nature; "Thou art about my path, and about my bed, and spiest out all my ways-such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me; I can not attain unto it-whither shad I go, then, from thy presence? IfI climb up into the Heavens, thou art there; if I go down into the bottomless pit, thou art there also.-If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost part of the sea, even there also shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."-How strictly the law in this case corresponds to the law-giver! In the contemplation of this stupendous subject, Newton expressed the thought (it has sublimity if not truth) that space the very scene of such mighty works, was the sensorium of the supreme. And how nearly is that thought allied to one of divine authority," in him we live and move and have our being." When there fore, we see the certainty and efficiency with which by one simple law of gravitation he upholds the great and the little every where in the material universe, and therewith "spreads his tender mercies over all his works," surely we have an ample guarantee for the certainty & efficiency of His Holy and all-pervading spirit in dispensing the affairs and consummating the glory of the Kingdom of Christ. We not only thus learn from the light of nature, that his providence is certain and efficient for the advancement of His Church, but we gather from revelation itself, the purely spiritual means by which he has ordained and promised alone to govern and superintend it. When a lawyer is asked by a client how the affairs of a deceased person shall be administered, he inquires for his will, from a careful perusal of which he collects the wishes and inientions of the testator.-He does not consider, how he would dispose of his own affairs as a guide for administering those of another; he docs not act the part of a mere critic or reviser of the document before him; nor does he presume to make interpolations in it, or arbitrarily to pursue or modify the terms prescribed by it. He is satisfied honestly to expound the views of the testator as solemnly expressed in his will, and then honestly direct the administration accordingly.--I now hold in my hand a last will and testament--Christians call it the New Testament; and it is our duty from it to gather and to follow the pleasure of the divine testator.-In our general reasoning and speculations on this subject we might err; but what we collect from this source,comes with that authority which it is a matter of prudence and duty to obey.-From the time our Saviour rejected all the Kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, to the period of his ascension, we derive one consistent lesson respecting his Kingdom, the sprituality of its government, and its seperation from the world. In the sermon from a mountain to great multitudes of people, a sermon embracing a variety of duties, he does not hint at Clergy Reserves, or endowments or national patronage. The very expression thy Kingdom come" implies more what the confer-and the concluding words" for thine is nations should receive than what they ever could ever," are so dicidedly exclusive of the world, the Kingdom, and the power aud the glory, for minion, that it plainly requires Kings, nations and such complete assumption of the whole doand parliaments to be rather prostrate christians, than with antichristian aristocracy to volunteer themselves PATRONS OF GOD. 66 Had it been intended to promote and sustain Christian Churches through the governments of the world, we might expect to meet with appeals to them in their behalf, when the infancy of those churches, according to all human calculations, most needed such interposition. Had it not been unwise and inexpedient, twelve kings with their political establishments, might have been Apostolized instead of the 12 disciples; and surely we might at least look for some admonitions to such civil authorities to afford, as a duty,their patronage and endow ments. But I do not remember in the whole compass of the New Testament, a distant intimation of the kind. Christianity was to prevail against governments, but governments were not intrusted or commissioned to rear christianity. And now that christianity haa And prevailed against them, their obtruded patronnge and endowments are as ill-timed, as they ere unneeded, yea, pernicious. Upon commissioning his disciples to go into the world the Saviour said behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves," and, "take heed to yourselves, for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the Synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and Kings for my sake, for a testimony against them." what was the testimony? That they had patronized and endowed that state religion which they believed to be true and which they therefore sus tained according to the law of the land against the introduction of what they believed to be error. If testimony is thus borne against them, it lies equally against us. It will not, however,be a testimony against them for acting according to the dictates of their conscience & the requirements of the law: but for blindness unhappily produced by the corrupting influence of a system which assumed a censorship and dominion, not merely over morals, but over religion,a subject so foreign to their jurisdiction that its sphere exists solely between every individual and his maker. By creating ourselves national judges of what is the true religion, and making our belief of its truth the justification for exercising our parliamentary authority in its establishment and support, we invite by our example all the pagan governments of the earth under the same persuasion to fortify their error and provide means for the stability of their gods. Such an application of Legislative power for the maintainence of idolatry tends to perpetuate it! And of what avail can it be to the christian? It would on the face of it, be an unavailing plea, for Canadians on the judgment day, to say, . Now we see our error, but we followed the established church, sanctioned & endowed by the state." 66 Our Savior was accused by State accusers, "the nation and chief priests," and of a State offence, by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God;" he was arrested for it by State authority, the band and captain and officers of the Jews;" he was taken before State authority, "Pontius Pilate in the judgment hall." It would, to my mind, be as correct to say that in England, it was unlawful for judges and juries to entertain a complaint against offenders for non conformity, when that law was in force, as to allege illegality against the above proceedings. As it is admitted, our Saviour, instead of being guilty of blasphemy, manifested the glory of God, and taught the religion of truth to mankind, so it must be admitted, the persons accused under the conventicle act, were only guilty of "having Bibles" & engaging in the social worship of their Maker in the name of their Redeemer. In both cases the State exercised powers conferred by the law of the land, but in both cases it was a power, granted & exercised against the law of God as then expressed in natural and now in revealed religion. An act might be passed establishing a new religion in Upper Canada, protected by 66 66 Penalties to be inflicted upon all non-conformiiste, just as infidelity was proclaimed in France. The legal right would exist, but founded on a moral wrong, on an offence against God and the religious relation le bears towards his creatures individually. Ifence our Saviour upon his arraignment pleaded-1st. That the subject matter did not belong to earthly judicatures, my kingdom is not of this world." 2dly.When the judge asked him Whence are thon?" He "gave him no answer," a very plain indication that such an earthly court could not rightly interfere with the relation he sus. tained to the most high. 3rdly.-When Filate, like a modern judge, rebuked him for standing mute, and averred his “ power to crucify or releasc," the Saviour answered in these memora. ble words, "Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above; therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." This was another distinct plea to the jurisdiction: it declared that the offence of the person who delivered him, was not only great but the greater because he arraigned him before a tribunal which had no power delegated from Heaven, to adjudicate i such a matter. But the present attempt pailiamentarily to judge between the churches; to elect what creeds shall be admitted to, and what excluded from official patronage and endowment; to decide what christians profess a faith intitling them to participate the wealth of the government, and what christians for some implied heresy or unworthiness should merely receive toleration; to invade the "kingdom not of this world" with invidious and sectarian privileges by the conferring of which, some churches are to be honored, and by the withholding of which, others are to be cashiered by the State; these parliamentary attempts thus to sow the seeds of jealosy among the churches of Christ, taint them with envy and infect them with an artificial anti-christian aristocracy, are in practice, in principle and in consequences, so closely allied to the deprecated interference of the world with the supremacy of the Liessiah, that any affectation of a distinction would vanish in a refinement. Whenever persons volunteered in the cause of christianity upon its first announcement, nothing of the nature of Clergy Reserves was intimated to them; but the church was exhibited poor of the world and rien of heaven. When the scribe said, “I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest;" he was cheered with no present or future prospect of princely or national support, "the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head;" nor does it appear that he afterwards enlisted himself in the service of a kingdom which was engaged in a war with the wholeworld; a kingdom, therefore, which co'd expect from its governments as little aid then,as it can reed from them now. The same sentiment is pursued when the young man of great possessions made his en. quiries after salvation in an early period of the christian ministration. If the church was to be at any time indebted to the wealth of the world for nourishment and growth, it appeared at this primitive stage more particularly to require it. And had such been the destined policy of the spiritual hierarchy, the presumption is that the young man would have been instruced as a matter of duty to convert his "great possessions" into clergy reserves for the support of the present and the encouragement of future disciples; for the harvest was plenteous, and the labourers few." A very different conclusion, however, must be drawn from the injunction "sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor and follow me." The church among clergy reserves, is represented, "as seed among thorns;" "the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word and it becometh unfruitful." Wherever in the form of a parable a prophetic account is given of the course and history of the church, no part is assigned to parliaments or national endowinents. Hence the Saviour represents himself as, "the true vine" and his father as "the husbandman"-and instead of referring, in any degree whatever, the growth and fruitfulness of the branches to national and parliamentary endowments, (without which some apprehend the vine will wither away) it is emphatically said, in explanation of the sole source of productivness, "without me ye can do nothing,"" I have chosen you and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain"—and at the same time, instead of conciliating the favor of the powers of the world, or prophesying their future co-operation, he announced their hatred and persecution. It is obvious from the con. text that the disciples were somewhat dismayed, when these things were spoken unto them that they might not be offended."They saw a world of powers linked with paganism. These powers were to be overcome against the utmost exercise of their hatred and persecution, and when subdued, it is not said or hinted, that they should be received as an ally or be allowed to sway the sceptre of the kingdom accomplishing their subjugation. The disciples are dismayed-How are they comforted? With the prospect of Clergy Reserves? or of national endowments? or of parliamentary legislation? Not one word of consolation is derived from the world-There is no prophetic description of any kindred relation present or future between Church and State, either to bring forth the fruit or make it re main. They were "to teach all nations" and to "feed the sheep," in the midst of martyrdom and death-and their encouragement is, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" and the "father shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever; even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive;" the very world, indeed, without whose aid learned gentlemen would make me believe, christianity would become extinct. Here is the last will and testament. It appoints, to carry out the analogy, an executor: but not of Kings or Parliaments. It is express ly and exclusively, "the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, to remain with them forever."Go and teach all nations" and lo I am with you to the end of the world." This promise is itself enough, and in the first centuries it was all-prevailing. It neither needs endowments, which, according to the experinor asks the super-addition of those national ence of the past ages, and the testimony of Divines, "have added to the wealth, but destroyed the spirituality of the church.” Attempts were made to defeat divine prophecy by re-build.ng Jerusalem: but so safe was distrusted, that the repeated attempts were as the truth under the supreme care, which is now repeatedly defeated by a miraculous interferThe following is the account given by ence. Dr. Moshiem. "As Julian affected in general, to appear moderate in religious matters, unwilling to trouble any on account of their faith, or to seem averse to any sect or party, so to the Jews, in particular, he extended so far the marks of his indulgence as to permit them to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. The Jews set about this important work; from which, however, they were obliged to desist, before they had even begun to lay the foundations of the sacred edifice. For, while they were removing the rubbish, formidable balls of fire, issuing out of the ground with a dreadful noise, dispersed both the works and the workmen, and repeated earthquakes filled the spectators of this astonishing phenomenon with terror and dismay. This signal event is attested in a manner that renders its evidence irresistible, though, as usually happens in cases of that nature, the Christians have embellished it by augmenting rashly the number of the miracles that are supposed to have been wrought upon that occasion. The causes of this phenomenon may furnish matter of dispute; and learned men have, in effect, been divided upon that point. All, however, who consider the matter with attention and impartiality, will perceive the strongest reasons for embracing the opinion of those who attribute this event to the almighty interposition of the Supreme Being; nor do the arguments offered by some to prove it the effect of natural causes, or those alleged by others to persuade us that it was the result of artifice and imposture, contain any thing that may not be refuted with the utmost facility." According to the language of St. Paul, "Christ is the head of the body, the Church." Lawyers will observe that it is not "a head," which would imply the possible existence of others; nor is it "the chief head," which wo'd admit of subordinate ones: but it is emphatically expressed "the head," supreme, admitting the pretensions of no other, the assumption of no deputy, and the competition of no King, national executive or legislative assembly. What is meant by the head? It is the part by which we see, and hear and direct the movements of the general frame. In like manner, as "the Head," He has an eye and an ear spiritually to commune with His church and superintend its whole economy. This pledge he hitherto has, |