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A UTHOR: 
 
 WARDLAW, REV. DR 
 
 TfTL E: 
 
 SPEECH OF THE REV 
 DR. WARDLAW... 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
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 834 
 
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Ko. W. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REV. DR WARDLAW, 
 
 ^ 1 "^ 
 
 AT THE 
 
 PUBLIC MEETING IN GLASGOW, 
 
 FUR THE 
 
 SEPARATION 
 
 or 
 
 CHURCH AND STATE, 
 
 MARCH 6th, 1834, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 MEMORIAL TO EARL GREY, AND THE PETITION TO 
 PARLIAMENT, ADOPTED AT THE MEETING. 
 
 Sccont) IctJition. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN APPENDIX: 
 
 ll^[F^©iy[^l If'yi^TKllt^ l^[F>(S)§ll£)o 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 DAVID ROBERTSON; 
 
 JOHN WARDLAW, EDINBURGH; L. SMITH, ABERDEEN; 
 WESTLEY & DAVIS, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIV. 
 
TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 GLASGOW : 
 PCLLAKTOR AND CO., ritlNTiRS, VILLAFIILO. 
 
 In my " Exposure" of the falsehoods of Anglo- 
 Seotus, I introduced a statement of the revenue and 
 expenditure of the Glasgow city Churches. For 
 this I have been very bitterly dealt with, as doing 
 the very thing myself for which I censured him. 
 The plain truth is this : — My manuscript had gone 
 to press without any reference in it whatever to 
 the Glasgow city Churches. While engaged in cor- 
 recting the proof-sheets, the obnoxious statement 
 happened to come in ; and finding it entitled " Offi- 
 cial Statement of Church accommodation, &c. &c. ;" 
 and never doubting that it was what by its title it 
 purported to be, of the same authority with that of 
 Edinburgh ; I conceived myself warranted in giving 
 it insertion. Its official character is now, I find, 
 denied. That point must be settled by those imme- 
 diately concerned: — and perhaps it may prove to 
 have in it more of what its title imports than the 
 Editors of the Church of Scotland Magazine, or their 
 informants, were aware. We shall see. Meantime, I 
 have only to say for myself, that had I entertained 
 the least doubt of the statement being " official,'' I 
 should not have inserted it, as I have no inclination 
 to take part in the controversy respecting statistics. 
 The counter-statement, which has appeared in the 
 said Magazine, will, I doubt not, be sifted by those 
 who are accustomed to that process. 
 
 a3 
 
1 
 
 I may take this opportunity also of saying, that 
 the statements of Anglo-Scotus having no reference 
 whatever to the time when West George Street 
 Chapel was erected (1819), it was not deemed at 
 all necessary to go back to that period. We were 
 then indebted for contributions towards it from va- 
 rious friends of different religious denommations, 
 for which they had our thanks at the time; and 
 for which, lest we should be thought forgetful of 
 our obligations, we thus publicly thank them again. 
 But they have not the remotest connexion with the 
 statements of Anglo-Scotus. 
 
 SPEECH, &c. 
 
 Mr Chairman, 
 
 I RISE to propose, as introductory to the 
 proper business of this evening", the following general 
 Resolution : — 
 
 That, in the judgment of this meeting, civil establishments 
 of Christianity have, for their basis, principles subversive of 
 those on which the Christian Church, the spiritual kingdom of 
 Jesus Christ, was originally constituted ; that they imply an 
 unauthorized delegation to the civil power of prerogatives and 
 duties, which, by Divine institute, belong inalienably to the 
 Church itself; that they especially nullify the primitive ordi- 
 nance of the Church's only Head, for the support of his min- 
 isters and his cause, by the substitution in its room of an anti- 
 evangelical system of compulsory provision ; that, by thus 
 taking the support of religion out of the hands of the Church 
 itself, they paralyse and deaden the principles of personal and 
 social liberality and zeal, and materially impede the prosperity 
 and progress of the Gospel ; that, both in theory and in fact, 
 their tendency is to secularise the Church, to debase the purity 
 of her communion, to produce and maintain the fatal preva- 
 lence of a merely nominal Christianity, and, by confounding 
 all descriptions of character under a common designation, to 
 obscure the practical evidence of its truth, and engender 
 scepticism and infidelity ; that, by instituting a chartered 
 monopoly in favour of one religious sect, and, for its support, 
 invading the rights of conscience in others, they violate the 
 claims of righteousness and impartiality, and foster the spirit 
 of jealousy, alienation, and discord ; that, on these and other 
 grounds, they are equally at variance with the maxims of 
 sound political jurisprudence, and with the best interests of 
 Christianity. 
 
 In coming forward on such an occasion. Sir, I cannot 
 shut ray eyes to the conviction, that I am rendering my- 
 
 a3 
 
self by the step more obnoxious than ever to the dis- 
 approbation and displeasure, the coldness and alienation, 
 of a large portion of my fellow-christians :-and I should 
 at the same time, belie all the feehngs of my heart, 
 were I to say that 1 am indifferent to such a conse- 
 quence. To regard with lightness and scorn tjie esteem 
 and affection of those whom, in spite of the differences 
 between us, I must value as the excellent of the earth 
 would be contrary to every principle and every precept 
 of mv Bible, and to the entire spirit of the gospel. 
 No Sir -—I hold in high estimation the communion ot 
 the people of God, and I deeply regret whatever tends 
 to interrupt, to circumscribe, and to mar it.— But 1 
 have counted the cost. I have weighed all such conse- 
 quences against the obligation that lies upon me to 
 maintain what in my conscience I believe to be im- 
 portant principles of the divine word. And it is under 
 the commanding influence of such a paramount con- 
 viction, that I appear before this audience to-night. 
 
 Sir, allow me to begin by observing, what can never 
 be too constantly borne in mind, that the present ques- 
 tion is one not at all of persons but of principles. 
 There are ministers in the Church of Scotland, and not 
 a few of them, whom I must ever " esteem very highly 
 in love for their work's sake,"— faithful, conscientious, 
 laborious servants of the same Master; " workmen that 
 need not to be ashamed," who are " instant m season and 
 out of season," and " make full proof of their ministry 
 I have no quarrel with them. I bid them God speed ; 
 and I give them the credit for sincerity which I claim 
 for myself. 1 feel no inclination to bestow designations 
 and epithets upon my brethren in the Establishment, 
 such as it is unworthy of Christian men to take into 
 their lips, and which are more degrading to those into 
 whose lips they are taken, than to those on whom they 
 are contumeliously lavished. The question of Church 
 Establishments is one which ought to be calmly and 
 temperately discussed,— the appeal being made to the 
 only legitimate and competent authority, the Holy 
 Scriptures ;-the inspired record of the laws of the 
 kingdom. It is only on this ground, so far as prmciple 
 
 is concerned, that the case can be brought to a satisfac- 
 tory settlement. 
 
 1 may be asked— Why then do you propose to me- 
 morialize his majesty's ministers and to petition both 
 houses of parliament ? Is such procedure in harmony 
 with your avowed convictions ? Why not make your 
 appeal— your persevering appeal— to principle, and to 
 principle alone, and work out your object by argument 
 and persuasion ?— To such an inquiry, I would answer in 
 the first place, that so far as I am concerned, (and I 
 presume I speak the sentiments of all about me,) I 
 would much rather have carried the point we have in 
 view, by the diffusion and influence of principle, than 
 by any other means. But then, the expectation of the 
 result from a mere general paper war, would have been 
 a very idle one. Books by scores, pamphlets by hun- 
 dreds, and tracts by thousands, might have been pub- 
 lished ; and then, when the last on either side had left 
 
 the press, the controversy might have fallen asleep, and 
 the alliance in question have remained just as it was at 
 the commencement. It is evident, that this alliance 
 must be dissolved by the act of one or other or both of 
 the parties. The Church must throw off the State, or 
 the State must throw off the Church, or they must 
 mutually agree to separate. When, therefore, I say 
 that I would rather have effected our end by an appeal 
 to principles, let me be understood ;— I mean, that, had 
 there been even the faintest glimmer of hope, to en- 
 courage such a proceeding, — instead of memorializing 
 his majesty's ministers and petitioning parliament, I 
 should have proposed to memorialize the General As- 
 sembly of the Church of Scotland; to argue the case 
 with our brethren ; to convince them of their error ; 
 to induce them, by all the considerations the word of 
 God could furnish, to repudiate the partner of the 
 anti-christian union which they have so long maintained; 
 to assert the independent dignity of the Church of 
 the living God ; to throw off the yoke ; to refuse any 
 longer to be indebted for her support to any thing be- 
 yond her own voluntary resources, and for aid in pur- 
 suing her spiritual and glorious career to any thing 
 
8 
 
 else than the providence and the Spirit of her living 
 Head. This, Sir, I own, I should have reckoned a 
 far more desirable and noble triumph than the one at 
 which we are constrained to aim. I should have ex- 
 ulted to witness this splendid manifestation of the dis- 
 interested power of principle ; — this indignant and holy 
 spurning of a state of dependance, which had borne 
 the deceitful semblance of an honour, but was now felt 
 to be a disgrace. Perhaps we may have been wrong, 
 Sir, in considering this a hopeless course : — but I pre- 
 sume it has only been its assumed hopelessness that has 
 prevented its ever being suggested. 
 
 Sir, it is invariably assumed, that, in the course we 
 are pursuing, we are aiming at the destruction of the 
 Church. I have myself repeatedly, and so have others, 
 protested against this representation. So far. Sir, from 
 seeking her destruction, I do not even seek her injury. 
 My firm and bond fide conviction is, that in prosecuting 
 our present course we are consulting the benefit, the 
 real and essential benefit of the Church herself; — not her 
 loss, but her gain ; not her dishonour, but her glory ; 
 not her destruction, but her true and permanent stabil- 
 ity. — Sir, I must be permitted to say, however ob- 
 noxious the term may be, I desire the Church's eman- 
 cipation ; — her emancipation from a self-imposed but 
 dishonourable bondage, — and her establishment in the 
 liberty wherewith Christ hath made her free. I wish 
 her emancipated, for example, from the unseemly bon- 
 dage of having her supreme court, before any of its 
 enactments can be legal, constituted not in the name 
 of the King of Zion alone, but of the king of Great 
 Britain. I wish her delivered from the thraldom and 
 the indignity, of not having it in her power to introduce 
 the slightest alteration in her doctrinal articles of faith, 
 or in the rules of her government and the forms of her 
 procedure, without the concurrent sanction of the civil 
 magistrate, — so that, though the General Assembly 
 were coming to the conviction that any particular change 
 was required by the mind of Christ, it could not, with- 
 out an immediate forfeiture of its chartered privileges, 
 proceed upon that conviction^ unless the king and 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 the parliament saw with the same eyes, and gave the 
 sanction of a civil act to the alteration !* I wish her 
 freed from the servile yoke, of not being able to deter» 
 mine how her own ministers shall be chosen and nomi- 
 nated to their pastoral cures, without stirring the whole 
 country to petition the legislature for its gracious per- 
 mission, — pleading humbly and submissively for the abo- 
 lition of old acts and the passing of new ones !t Are 
 not trammels like these unworthy of the scriptural and 
 
 * " The civil magistrate is entitled to know the opinions of the 
 community of Christians to whom he imparts the benefits of an Es- 
 tablishment. He adopted that community in preference to others 
 from the knowledge which he then had of their tenets, and if they 
 were to embrace opinions essentially different, he might see cause to 
 withdraw that preference. Hence confessions of faith, which, eccle- 
 siastically considered, are an exposition of the truth prepared by the 
 society of teachers to direct their own ministrations, and to warn the 
 people against error, become a declaration to the State of the opi- 
 nions and principles held by the ministers of the established religion ; 
 and subscription to confessions, or articles of religion, is a solemn 
 pledge to the civil magistrate, that they will not, without his know- 
 ledge, make any change upon that system of doctrine which had re- 
 ceived his sanction." — Principal Hill's View of the Constitution of the 
 Church of Scotland, Part 11. Sect. 1. 
 
 f " The Church of Scotland complained of this Act (the act of 
 1712) as an invasion of its privileges, made various ineffectual efforts 
 to obtain a repeal of the act, and, during a great part of the last cen- 
 tury, gave annual instructions to the Commission of the General As- 
 sembly to make due application to the king and parliament for redress 
 of the grievance of patronage, in case a favourable opportunity for so 
 doing should occur. But since the year 1784 this article has been 
 left out of the instructions given to the Commission. A great majority 
 of the members of the church, both ministers and laymen, are now 
 convinced that patronage affords the most convenient method of 
 settling vacant parishes ; — and, whatever difference of opinion may 
 still prevail upon the question of expediency, few pretend to doubt 
 that patronage is the law of the land, interpreted and confirmed by 
 various decisions of the civil courts, and by the uniform train of the 
 judgments pronounced by the church during a long course of years." 
 — Principal HilTs View of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland, 
 Part II. Sect. 3. Whether the applications now making to parlia- 
 ment on the same subject, not indeed by the supreme court of the 
 church, but in various quarters by the popular voice, will prove more 
 effectual than at the time referred to, remains to be seen. But, 
 whatever be the result, it is, on neither supposition, the less humili- 
 ating to think, that the determination of the practice of the church 
 in the election of her own ministers to their respective charges should 
 rest with a committee of the House of Commons ! Proh pudor ! 
 
10 
 
 independent dignity of the Church of God? In the 
 New Testament, I find one authority only recognised as 
 binding in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is the 
 authority of Jesus Christ himself, or, which is the same 
 thing, of his vicegerents the apostles. I cannot but 
 loathe most indignantly seeing the Church thus dis- 
 honoured, by what I can regard in no other light than 
 as a state of inferiority and subjection. When we read 
 of acts of parliament " allowing " the meetings of assem- 
 blies, *' declaring that it shall be lawful to the kirk and 
 ministers," to " hold and keep them ;"— and of " the 
 presence of the Lord High Commissioner," as " the gra- 
 cious pledge of protection and countenance to the Estab- 
 lished Church, and the symbol of that sanction which 
 the civil authority is ready to give to its legal acts,"— 
 instead of envying the honour, I blush for the degra- 
 dation. . 
 " The Church of Scotland," says an eminent authori- 
 ty of her own, « claims the right of meeting in a gene- 
 ral assembly, as well as in inferior courts, by its own 
 appointment. But it also recognises the right of the 
 supreme magistrate to call synods and to be present at 
 them : and these two rights are easily reconciled, when 
 there subsists between the Church and the State that 
 good understanding which all the true friends of both 
 will study to cultivate." *— But this good understanding 
 
 • « As by the constitution of the Church of Scotland," continue* 
 Principal Hill, " the ecclesiastical business of this country cannot be 
 conducted without the frequent meetings of General Assemblies, the 
 act, 1592, which established Presbyterian government, declares, that 
 * it shaU be lawful to the kirk and ministers, every year at the least, 
 and oftener pro re nata, as occasion and necessity shall require, to 
 hold and keep General Assemblies.' And the act, 1690, which re- 
 stored Presbyterian government at the revolution, allows the general 
 meeting and representatives of the ministers and elders, in whose 
 hands the exercise of the church government is established according 
 to the custom and practice of Presbyterian church government 
 throughout the whole kingdom. In pursuance of these acts, the Ge- 
 neral Assembly meets annually in the month of May, an^l continues to 
 sit for ten days ; at the end of which time it is dissolved, first by the 
 Moderator, who appoints another Assembly to be held upon a certain 
 day of the month of May in the following year, and then by the Lora 
 High Commissioner, who, in his Majesty's name, appoints another 
 
 11 
 
 has not at all times been maintained : — and, for evi- 
 dence of the spirited independence of the Church, we 
 have been recently referred to cases in which the at- 
 tempt of the king to interfere with and put a stop to 
 ecclesiastical proceedings has been resisted, even under 
 heavy penalties ; — and to other cases, in which the cler- 
 gy, had they chosen to acquiesce in the dicta of the 
 magistrate, might easily by such acquiescence have re- 
 tained their glebes and manses, and temporal advan- 
 tages; but in which they preferred, as the result of 
 refusing conformity, to " take joyfully the spoiling of 
 their goods," and to submit to every privation and dis- 
 tress. Far be it from me to detract, in the slightest 
 degree, from the credit due either to church courts or 
 to individuals, who, in peculiar circumstances, have 
 manifested the resolute intrepidity and the noble disin- 
 terestedness of steadfast principle. No, Sir: I trust I 
 shall ever admire the spirit of Christian heroism, by 
 whomsoever displayed. But my question is — Wht/ did 
 (here exist such a power to be resisted 9 and, when resist- 
 ed, why was it under heavy penalties? — and whence 
 came the power that deprived the conscientious clergy 
 of their livings, and deprived their flocks of their super- 
 intendence and labours ? Are we told, that that was 
 the abuse of power ? I still ask. Why did the power 
 exist to be abused 9 The power abused was the power 
 of the civil magistrate in matters of religion, — the power 
 imparted by the consent of the Church, and exercised 
 by the magistrate under the impression of his right and 
 prerogative to act as the Church's Head. But for this 
 impression, such scenes had never been enacted ;— and 
 but for the establishment of religion, there had never 
 been this impression. All has arisen out of that most 
 antiscriptural and most irrational position in the stand- 
 ards of our own £stablishment,-»that " the magistrate 
 has authority to call synods, to be present at them, and to 
 provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be accord- 
 Assembly to be held upon the day which had been mentioned by the 
 Moderator." — Principal HilTs View of the Constitution of the Church 
 of Scotland^. Part II. Sect. 4. They are easily pleased who are 
 pleased with this shadow of precedence. 
 
12 
 
 13 
 
 ing to the mind of God." It is the recognition of this 
 power that has been, not the innocent occasion, but the 
 guilty cause, of all the mischief :— a power nowhere re- 
 cognised in the New Testament, but alike opposed to 
 its spirit and its letter. 
 
 Sir, this unhallowed alliance of the Church with the 
 State is not an alliance of equality.— The latter is the 
 superior. This is, in various ways, apparent. It is 
 apparent in the very fact, of the Church petitioning the 
 State, in regard to matters which, if there be any what- 
 ever that are deserving of the designation, are strictly 
 and properly Ecclesiastical. What can be more so, for 
 instance, than the manner of electing and settling her 
 own ministers? Yet this must be the subject of peti- 
 tion. The Church must pray the State to favour her 
 with an alteration in the laws on this point :— nor can 
 she take a single step, without gracious parliamentary 
 and royal permission. Sir, I repeat, I loathe this. I 
 regard all such applications as acknowledging an autho- 
 rity that has no existence, and as utterly degrading to 
 the Church of God— The superiority is apparent also in 
 another thing, that although, as I have said, the Gene- 
 ral Assembly might decline any longer to be indebted 
 to the State for support, and might, by such declinature, 
 withdraw from the connexion ;— there is a far higher 
 power exercised in refusing to give than in refusing to 
 receive. This is the State's part of the power— the 
 power to put away — the power to withhold* — This is a 
 state of real vassalage and dependence. We have been 
 charged with " insidious designs." I hate the word, 
 Sir ; and I disown the thing. Our simple object is, to 
 
 • It is not His Grace of Canterbury that says, There shall be no alter- 
 ation in the connection between the Church and the SUte ; — it is Earl 
 Grey:— not the Ecclesiastical, but the civil Premier.— The power 
 given to the King in the Church, and the power given to the Bishops 
 in the State, are alike incongruous. But alas! how mortifymgly 
 small is the latter 1 and withal how insecure and dependant ! The 
 power of the State does not depend on the will of the Ecclesiastics, 
 but the power of the Ecclesiastics on the will of the State. The 
 House of Lords may at any time vote the Bishops out, by simply 
 out-voting the Bishops.— Are these the Heaven-derived privileges, 
 and inalienable prerogatives, of the Church of the living God ? 
 
 I 
 
 bring back the Church of Christ to its first principles, — 
 to save it from the contamination and the thraldom of 
 earthly alliances, and to assert its purity and its free- 
 dom. 
 
 There is no Inconsistency between our principles and 
 the act of petitioning. We do not petition for legisla- 
 tion in the Church ; we petition for the cessation of 
 legislation. Our sentiment is, that there ought never 
 to have subsisted any such union : — but since, through 
 the errors of human counsel, it does subsist, we apply 
 to the only authority to which we have access, that has 
 power to dissolve it : — and in doing so, we act, not in 
 the capacity of members of churches, but in our capacity 
 as British subjects, availing ourselves of our fair and 
 legitimate prerogative. • 
 
 Amongst the " insidious designs " we are supposed 
 to have in view, is a participation in the spoils, — in the 
 glebes, and manses, and endowments. Then why, Sir, 
 I would ask, are we Dissenters ? — Why have we ever 
 been Dissenters ? If we had panted for the blessings 
 of the Establishment; if our envious appetites had 
 keenly longed after the loaves and fishes ; might we not 
 have been in it? We wanted nothing to our entrance 
 there but a little of an Indian rubber conscience. We 
 had only to put it on the stretch, and all the coveted 
 benefits might have been ours. — Sir, I feel as if I were 
 stooping from the dignity which becomes us, in so 
 much as noticing such a thing. Let it be understood 
 once for all, that we do not plead merely for the doing 
 away of the monopoly , in the sense of admitting others 
 to the same privileges, — so that all sects should alike 
 be taken under the wing, and pensioned from the boun- 
 ty of the State. We plead for the doing away of all 
 State provision together. We seek not that we should 
 be placed on the same footing with them, but that they 
 should be placed on the same footing with us. I repu- 
 diate with scorn all Regiwn Donums, and every thing 
 of the same beggarly kind, and regret that any body of 
 Dissenters, or any individual ministers, should ever have 
 let themselves down to the acceptance of them. What 
 we honestly wish is, that religion should be left, as in 
 
 B 
 
14 
 
 15 
 
 tlie beginning of the Gospel, to its own native energies 
 and resources :— that the State, in one word, should 
 
 •* let it alone." 
 
 As to another of our ** insidious designs," the design 
 of pulling down all the churches, (I mean, of course, the 
 stone and lime churches,) not leaving one stone upon 
 another, — merely for the pleasure of having them built 
 up again on the voluntary principle, — the absurdity of 
 it is too gross to allow of our giving him who alleges it 
 credit for sincerity. No, no: our friends may keep 
 themselves quite easy on that score. We have not the 
 remotest intention of repeating the famous Knoxian 
 experiment, of dispersing the rooks by pulling down 
 
 the nests. 
 
 But in what we are now about, we are seriously, and 
 I believe with the utmost sincerity of apprehension, 
 admonished that we are trying a ''fearful experiment:' 
 I believe the apprehension, on the part of many who 
 speak so, to be sincere, not for the Church of Scotland 
 merely, but for the interests, and for the very existence 
 in the country, of true religion. I am, of course, as 
 far as possible from thinking the apprehension well- 
 founded ; but persuaded of its sincerity in many minds, 
 I give them all due credit for it, while 1 would seek to 
 remove it. Allow me to make this allegation, then, 
 that what we are doing is a fearful experiment, — the 
 text of what I have still to say. In meeting the alle- 
 gation, then, I have to say — 
 
 In the first place, — that I disown the idea of ex- 
 periment altogether. Experiment proceeds on the as- 
 sumption, that we are to find out the best principle, or 
 the most eligible plan, of procedure, b^ trial, by bring- 
 ing various principles and plans to the test of experi- 
 ence ; that we are to try different ways, in order to find 
 out the right way. Now, this is what 1 must be per- 
 mitted to deny. The case before us is in no respect a 
 case of this kind. The constitution of the Christian 
 Church is not a matter to be ascertained by trial. The 
 nature and laws of the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ 
 are not to be settled by a process of experimenting. 
 The question is one, to which the answer must be 
 
 sought by a direct appeal to Divine authority, — to the 
 statute-book of the kingdom. Let it not be called, 
 therefore, an experiment, far less a fearful experiment. 
 Let us fix it in our minds, as a position from which 
 nothing can dislodge us, that divinely sanctioned prin- 
 ciples not only may be, but ever ought to be, followed 
 out without fear. I know no principle more important 
 than this, — that whenever we have ascertained a divine 
 prescription, we should follow it fearlessly ; — that there 
 never can be danger of injurious effects from a strict 
 adherence to the institutes of infinite wisdom. Once 
 show me the mind of God, — what he wills, — and you 
 have determined dut?/. That instant, I close my ear to all 
 the argumentations of human expediency. My course is 
 fixed. Reasonings and fears then become alike impious. 
 I give them all to the winds. — Sir, what is it that is 
 properly entitled to the designation of a fearful experi- 
 ment ? It is not that which we are seeking to do ; it 
 is that which we are seeking to undo. The fearful 
 experiment lay in the departure from divine principles ; 
 in the devolution upon the State of what had been the 
 duty and prerogative of the Church ; in the introduc- 
 tion of the power of the civil magistrate into the spir- 
 itual kingdom of Christ; in the substitution of the com- 
 pulsory for the voluntary ; and of the sword of earthly 
 power for the sword of the Spirit. Yes, Sir, this was 
 the " fearful experiment," — the experiment by which 
 it was to be tried, how human plans and human princi 
 pies would do, in lieu of those which divine wisdom 
 had followed in the original constitution of the New 
 Testament Church. Every experiment of this kind 
 may well be called a fearful one ; but there can be no- 
 thing fearful in a return to Bible principles. I have 
 no sympathy with the timidity of those who indulge 
 apprehensive forebodings from such a step. They, Sir, 
 are properly the Dissenters, who dissent from the 
 Apostles, and from the churches in Judea, which were 
 in Christ. In this view I must be allowed to regard 
 our brethren of the Establishment as the Dissenters ; 
 and instead of saying to my fellow-christians, " Let us 
 plant our foot upon the ground held by Knox and the 
 
 b3 
 
16 
 
 other reformers," I would rather say, Let us plant our 
 foot upon the ground held by Paul and the other 
 Apostles. We need never fear to resume that ground. 
 It is rock ; all else is shifting and unstable sand. 
 
 My second observation is this, — that I am not aware 
 of its ever having been denied, that the New Testa- 
 ment Church was originally constituted on the volun- 
 tary principle; that this was the only principle in opera- 
 tion at its outset. This is admitted. How, indeed, can 
 it possibly be questioned ? I ask, then, under whose 
 auspices did the Church begin ? Who were at the 
 founding of it ? The answer, the only answer, is,— 
 the inspired Apostles of Jesus Christ,— those very men 
 of whom Jesus Christ said,—" He that heareth you 
 heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, 
 and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me." 
 In these circumstances, I confess, I covet not the re- 
 sponsibility of those who, granting this to have been 
 the original state of things, venture to speak of the 
 voluntary principle, in such terms of disparagement, 
 and condemnation, and ridicule, as have been applied to 
 it. It has been represented, in no measured terms ot 
 obloquy, as the real origin of all the corruption and 
 mischief that have ever befallen the Church. I do not 
 at present quote any of the various forms in which it 
 has been impugned and scouted. There are plenty 
 from which to select, as every body knows. What I 
 wish is, that those who write and speak thus, would 
 only bethink themselves, where their objections, and 
 their jibes and sarcasms, ultimately light. They laugh 
 at " the Voluntaries' ; but were not the Apostles Vo- 
 luntaries? Were not the primitive Christians Volunta- 
 ries ? They have never denied that ; they cannot deny 
 that. They may say, — for indeed such things have been 
 
 said, that the first Churches acted as they did, under 
 
 existing circumstances, because they could do no better. 
 In this respect, they may allege, the primitive Chris- 
 tians were not Voluntaries ; or at any rate, they were 
 voluntaries only through the constraint of circum- 
 stances; voluntaries because they could not help it; 
 voluntaries, who, as they sometimes allege of us too, 
 
 I 
 
 
 17 
 
 would have taken the aid of the State, could they have 
 got it ! Here again, I would beseech them to consider, 
 on whom, in effect, this imputation of irapotency falls. 
 When it is said, they could do no better, to what does 
 it amount ? to what, but that Jesus Christ, with " all 
 power in heaven and in earth" committed into his 
 hands, could do no better? that God, the governor 
 among the nations, who " turns the hearts of men as 
 the rivers of water, whithersoever he will," could do 
 no better? If we are told it was best for the then 
 existing circumstances of the Church, but intended to 
 be otherwise afterwards ; this is precisely what we want 
 proved, in order to our acquiescing in the propriety 
 and authority of a change. Let the intimation of any 
 such intention be shown us in the New Testament, and 
 we give in. Till then, we must continue to hold, that 
 the Church remains the same, and that the same con- 
 stitution which suited it originally was intended to be 
 universal and permanent. 
 
 I have to say, thirdly, in regard to this " fearful ex- 
 periment," that the voluntary principle, on which the 
 Church was originally constituted, continued in opera- 
 tion for centuries ; and we have now to see what is the 
 ground of complaint against it. The objection inces- 
 santly reiterated in our ears used to be, that the volun- 
 tary principle was necessarily capricious and fickle, — 
 that it was inefficient, unproductive, and by no means 
 to be trusted to. Other ground, however, has now been 
 taken. So far as the experience of the first three cen- 
 turies goes, we are now told that the great evil of the 
 principle was its over-productiveness — the excess of its 
 efficiency. Its operation brought into the Church such 
 a tide of wealth, as to be the means of originating and 
 progressively augmenting its corruption and degeneracy. 
 I admit, to no small extent, the truth of the representa- 
 tion; that various principles of a superstitious nature 
 intruded themselves into the church at an early period ; 
 and that there were not wanting amongst the clergy 
 those who were disposed to avail themselves of an ap- 
 peal to such principles for mercenary and self-aggran- 
 dizing ends. But because a principle has been abused, 
 
18 
 
 19 
 
 does it follow that it ought to be relinquished ? Is it not 
 rather our business to retain the principle, and to cor- 
 rect and beware of the perversion of it ? We might as 
 well relinquish the Lord's Supper because it degenerat- 
 ed into the Mass; or abandon the popular election of our 
 spiritual teachers because it too has been abused, and 
 submit to some law of patronage. The productiveness 
 of the principle, on the showing of our friends on the 
 other side themselves, has been abundantly proved. 
 But the theory in behalf of Establishments, now con- 
 structed on the basis of this fact, is a very curious one. 
 In consequence, it seems, of the excessive profusion with 
 which the voluntary principle poured wealth into the 
 church, an establishment became necessary, in the way 
 of a salutary check, to repress and regulate the opera- 
 tion of a too productive principle, and so to stem the tide 
 of corruption that had set in from that source ! I can- 
 not now enter into an examination of this novel ground 
 of the defence of Establishments. I only offer two sim- 
 pie remarks upon it. The first is, that we should never 
 hear more of the inefficiency of the voluntary principle ; 
 for, while we are assured on the very best authority, of 
 its primitive productiveness in the apostolic churches, 
 we have it contended by our opponents themselves, that 
 it was the very excess of its productiveness which in 
 aftertimes was the inlet of all evil to the church. The 
 second is, that if, upon their own showing, this was the 
 case till the time of the institution of Establisliments, 
 then does the complaint of the unproductiveness of the 
 same principle in our days, come with a peculiarly bad 
 grace from their advocates, seeing the cause of this com- 
 plaint is traceable to the very institutions which we wish 
 to remove. If, indeed, it was the design of Establish- 
 ments to operate with a repressing influence on a prin- 
 ciple that had run wild in the luxuriance of its liberal- 
 ity, the end, it must be confessed, has been most signally 
 accomplished. They have repressed it,— and repressed 
 it to a degree that has furnished our adversaries with the 
 argument (so far as it goes) of its inefficiency. And 
 I am quite ready to grant, that, after, for so many ages, 
 the onus of the support of the church has been taken off 
 
 from individuals and Christian societies, and laid upon 
 the shoulders of the State, and, in this posture of things, 
 habits the most inveterate have been formed and foster- 
 ed, it will be no easy matter to rouse the ancient prin- 
 ciple to any thing like its primitive energy, and its pri- 
 mitive productiveness ; — to give its original elasticity to 
 the unused and rusted spring ; — to open the fountain 
 that has so long been sealed ; — to roll the stone from 
 the sepulchre, in which, since the days of Constantine, 
 Christian charity has lain dead and entombed, and bring 
 her forth to the warmth, and vigour, and activity, of her 
 youthful prime. This, however, is what we wish to do, 
 with the aid and direction of the Divine Head of the 
 Church. And we have no fears of the result. It is 
 our firmly settled conviction, that, when all invidious 
 distinctions are done away, and Christianity is thrown 
 upon its own resources, and left to the emulous efforts 
 of spontaneous liberality, we shall see scenes of novel 
 enterprise and Christian prosperity, such as our country, 
 with all its many advantages and blessings, has never 
 yet witnessed. 
 
 I am the more confirmed in this conviction, by the 
 only remaining observation I have now to make, viz. 
 In the fourth place, — That, while we go back with 
 confidence for our principles, and for the manifestation 
 of their efficiency, to primitive times, and might fairly 
 and fully rest our cause there, — we have, at the same 
 time, an example of their operation now before us, on a 
 large scale, and of the most interesting and imposing 
 nature. I feel no disposition to shrink or hesitate, in 
 naming as that example — the United Slates of America* 
 — And here I would, with all affection and earnestness, 
 pray my brethren of the Establishment, to beware, for 
 the sake of their own gratification, of allowing any 
 biassing influence of party prejudice so to sway their 
 minds, as to prevent them from enjoying, with the full 
 flow of devout emotion, the interesting " works of cha- 
 rity and labours of love," of which that land is at this 
 
 ♦ I introduce this, not, of course, as an argument from Scripture, 
 but simply as a practical exemplification of the efficiency of a Scrip- 
 ture principle. 
 
20 
 
 day the theatre I would most earnestly recommend 
 
 to a careful perusal, by all who take an interest in the 
 progress of Cliristianity, and especially by such as are 
 sceptical about the operation of the voluntary principle 
 in America, a pamphlet by Mr Calvin Colton, an 
 American minister, at present residing in London,— 
 entitled * Church and State in America.' It is a pro- 
 duction which, making all possible allowance for the 
 partialities of national attachment and predilection, con- 
 tains in its various statements of fact, apart from all its 
 reasonings— (its reasonings, indeed, may be said mainly 
 to consist in its facts)— the most delightful manifesta- 
 tion of the irrepressible elasticity of the springs of 
 Christian beneficence, when left to the spontaneous un- 
 constrained energy of Christian principle for its impulse. 
 
 There should, in regard to America, be borne in 
 
 mind, the amazing rapidity with which its population 
 advances, and the difficulty, consequently, of keeping 
 pace with it, in providing the supply of general and 
 especially of religious instruction ;— and yet, notwith- 
 standing this, such has been of late the corresponding 
 rapidity in the advance of the latter, that they who go 
 back but a very few years for their estimate of the true 
 state of things, are liable to the most egregious errors, 
 in consequence of the progress made in the short inter- 
 val. I shall beg leave to read a brief extract or two 
 
 from this important publication : but before doing so, 
 there is one remark which it is of consequence to offer; 
 
 namely, that in three of the New England States, 
 
 Connecticut, New Hampshire, and INFassachusetts, there 
 was for a time a description of Establishment, passing 
 under the designation of " the Standing Order."— In 
 the two former, this state of things, by successive steps, 
 was finally done away about nine years ago ; — and the 
 experience of the results, both in (jonnecticut and New 
 Hampshire, so far from deterring Massachusetts from 
 following the example, has proved of such a nature, that 
 she has recently, it is understood, done the same thing — 
 annulling the '* Standing Order," and placing all sects 
 upon the same level. Let us see, then, from one or two 
 short specimens, how matters stand; and especially how 
 
 21 
 
 the principle operates there, which we are solicitous to 
 introduce amongst ourselves. We shall find one or two 
 of the citations most encouragingly analogous to our 
 own condition. 
 
 " It is true, as I need not say, that the population of the 
 United States has increased and spread itself out, perhaps be- 
 yond example ; certainly with a rapidity, that has attracted 
 attention. It was true, and no wonder, that the advances of 
 religion did not keep pace with this leaping and bounding over 
 the hills and mountains, and this running into the far and 
 wide vale of the West. It was true, that the prophets, the 
 discerning minds of the age, began to look out on this spread- 
 ing of the people, and to forecast their benevolent devices. 
 They began to stir themselves, to inform and stir the public 
 mind. They took great pains to collect information ; to ob- 
 tain an estimate of the number of Christian ministers in the field: 
 of the ratio of their decrease by death, and of their increase by 
 education ; of the ratio of increase in the population, and of the 
 requisite increase of the ministers of religion to supply them. 
 In a word, thev numbered the people and their religious 
 teachers. They 'decided, that it was proper and needful for 
 the best interests of society, to have one minister to every 
 thousand souls in the land, and found an actual deficiency in 
 no inconsiderable portion, being, as nearly as I recollect, about 
 one minister to every two thousand souls. On estimating the 
 average annual increase of ministers, so far as could be ascer- 
 tained, and the annual increase of population, the latter so 
 far outrun the former in relative proportion of the acknowledged 
 want, as to afford a most alarming prospect. I do not remember 
 precisely what time this estimate was fairly and fully before 
 the American public. It is near enough to say ten years ago, 
 and that it occupied five years previous in being made. I 
 hardly need say, that since this actual and prospective want of 
 ministers became known, the most intense interest has been 
 felt among all denominations of Christians, and one united, 
 systematic, and well-sustained effort has been made to supply 
 the demand. Besides the ordinary schools of training and 
 methods of induction to the sacred office, all of which have 
 been employed with increasing and especial energy, under a com- 
 mon and urgent sense of the special demand, a new and extra 
 device, called Education Societies, organized expressly for 
 selecting and preparing suitable young men, by a regular course 
 of education, for the "Christian ministry, has already brought 
 forward many additional hundreds into the field, and presents 
 a constantly accumulating corps in a course of preparation,* 
 Pages 6, 1. 
 
2-2 
 
 23 
 
 ll 
 
 ' " By the last census of 1830, the population of the United 
 States' was 12,860,020. Allowing 300 Roman Catholic priests, 
 we shall then have of all denominations, as may be seen, full 
 one minister for every thousand souls by the estimate of the 
 last census. Deductini; the Roman Catholics and those not 
 esteemed Orthodox, all of which, in their own connexions, 
 doubtless have their influence in promoting morality and se- 
 curing the good order of society, we shall still have 11,138, 
 whose Christianity is generally sound, whose qualifications are 
 for the most part fitted for the several classes of society, among 
 which their labours are distributed, and a very great propor- 
 tion of whom would not suffer by comparison in piety and pro- 
 fessional learning with any set of men of the same class in 
 the Christian world, w4ien viewed en masse, and in their ordin- 
 ary relations to society. 
 
 " Thus much, to show, that rapidly as the population of 
 the United States has increased, tlie virtue of the Christian 
 public there, having been roused by information and suitable 
 appeals, has not only kept pace with this march in supplying 
 a proportionate number of the ministers of religion, but has 
 actually gained upon it, and bids fair, in these provisions for 
 the spiritual wants of the people, soon to attain the limits of 
 its aspirations." * Page 9. 
 
 " It happened, also, that one of the two great political par- 
 ties of New Endand, was hiiihlv charjred with the same leaven 
 (of infidelity) ; and that this party hated the^Establishment, and 
 sought its ruin, because, to a considerable extent, it hated nil 
 religion. Infidelity identified religion with the ' Standing Order ;' 
 
 • On the subject of education for the ministrj', the following sen- 
 tences are interesting : — " The Presbyterian and Congregational de- 
 nominations alone have more than 1200 pious young men in a course 
 of training for the ministry, who are sustained by the liberality of the 
 churches ; besides a great number who have the means of meeting the 
 expense of their own education." — " The Education Societies are, for 
 the most part, voluntary associations, in distinction from those which 
 are under denominational or ecclesiastical supervision. It may be as- 
 sumed, I should think, within limits of truth, that these societies, in- 
 cluding those of all denominations, have 2000 young men in a course 
 of education for the ministry, in addition to the number which would 
 have been in training without these special exertions." — '* The liter- 
 ary and theological course of a candidate for the ministry with us, 
 commonly embraces from seven to nine years." — " There is a disposi- 
 tion manifested by all the evangelical denominations to elevate the 
 substantial qualifications of candidates for the ministry. Episcopali- 
 ans, Baptists, Methodists, &c. are getting up their theological semi- 
 naries in all directions, and filling them with able professors. More 
 has been done for Christianity in these respects within the last ten years 
 than had been accomplished in the preceding Jifty years." 
 
 and the * Standing Order' identified the obnoxious party with in- 
 fidelity. Dr Dwight was too discerning not to discover the symp- 
 toms working in the public mind, and too prophetic not to 
 anticipate the possible results. Popular prejudices against the 
 Establishment increased, spreading in extent, and augmenting 
 their influence ; and with Dr Dwight, and I may say, with the 
 generality of good men, (for it must be confessed, that the great 
 bulk of the intelligence, and religion, and the most exemplary 
 virtues of that part of the country, were on the same side,) the 
 simple question, as the controversy in all its aspects presented 
 itself to their minds, was, the maintenance of the then present 
 order of things, or the prostration of all religion. ' Toleration' 
 was the watchword on the one hand, which of course enlisted 
 all the prejudices and all the sense of long-endured grievances, 
 that had place in the bosoms and ranks of the dissenting sects ; 
 while a real and anxious solicitude for Christianity itself preyed 
 on the feelings of the opposite party. The contest thickened, 
 and grew more serious and determined on both sides. The 
 pulpit and the press laboured, the former in some instances 
 imbecomingly, in the ranks. At last a Convention of the State, 
 lor the construction and adoption of a new Constitution, was 
 resolved on by the popular voice. The work was done ; all 
 tiie former and exclusive advantages of the ' Standing: Order' 
 were taken away, and they were reduced to a common level, 
 -landing on their own merits as a religious sect, and left to the 
 naked influence of their virtue. The public mind settled down 
 into quiet ; every body, every religious sect, and all the com- 
 |)onent elements of the two great political parties, went about 
 their own business. Christians and Christian ministers could 
 now find time to work for their Master, without being jealous 
 of, or quarreling with each other, on account of political ad- 
 vantages, enjoyed by one party and denied to another. Reli- 
 gion prospered ; old animosities were forgotten ; infidelity be- 
 came less bold, and gradually disappeared : and I question 
 whether a man can be found in the State of Connecticut, lay- 
 man or minister, belonging to that great and most numerous of 
 all the Cliristian bodies, formerly called the * Standing Order,' 
 that would be willing to go back to the old state of things, if it 
 were offered, and that with the assurance of a perpetuity with- 
 out opposition. And if Dr Dwight had lived to see and enjoy 
 this better, quiet, and happy state of things, he would have re- 
 joiced, and died in peace with his blessing on it. He was 
 honest in opposing it ; and so were all his brethren. His bre- 
 thren are all converted ; and he would not have remained alone. 
 So we may presume ; nay, we are confident." Pages 25, 26. 
 
 The doing away of the *' Standing Order" was consi- 
 dered by many there, as it now is here, to be a " fear- 
 
h 
 
 24 
 
 ful experiment." Let us look at the result, to see 
 whether the fears were well or ill-founded : 
 
 « It was not without very serious apprehensions /hat "jany 
 evangelical Christians witnessed this abandonment of what they 
 esteemed the good old way of supporting the gospel. Some 
 predicted the destruction of many churches ^n^ a s^^^^^" 
 dearth of religious instruction . The result did not verify the r 
 fears. Instead of withdrawing their support from the^ gospel 
 the people brought to its aid a cheerful liberaht>s which had 
 till now been kept in the back ground. Minis ers became 
 Ire active, and were more extensively blessed in the discharge 
 of their official duties. The success which has crowned the 
 voluntary efforts of the churches is encouraging them to a new 
 enterprise for themselves ; which is to sustain feeble and dilapi- 
 dated congregations in their endeavours to procure the stated 
 ministrations of the gospel. More has been ^one/vithm^^^^^^^^ 
 years to collect new congregations, and supply he deftute 
 iith the means of salvation, in New England than had been 
 done in a quarter of a century before. And" (mark this mv 
 fellow-christians) " the measure of divine influence vouchsafed 
 to the churches has been in proportion to their liberality. 
 
 """^And take, my Lord, the following remarks in the Report, 
 as expressive of the confidence of the Board in the American 
 
 ^''" '"^Th^ conviction is extending, and becoming more and 
 more practical, that the great things to be aimed at by churches 
 and individual Christians, is the conversion of the ^^orld.l, 
 
 *' Also : ' The churches of New England, though far below 
 tlie standard of missionary feeling and action required in the 
 .ospel, are obviously rising. There seems to be a general 
 expectation of doing more and more every year. 1 suitable 
 men could be obtained for missionaries, m sufficient number 
 to require such an amount of funds, and a cal were made 
 upon the churches, New England alone would cheerfully tur- 
 nish more funds during the next year, than your treasury has 
 received in anv one year since the organization ot the 15oard. 
 Nothing is wanting to obtain funds, to any reasonable amount, 
 but suitable missionaries to expend them.' . i „j 
 
 -I know New England, my Lord. I was born and bred 
 there ; and I fully concur in this opinion. I believe, tha 
 New England alone, one-fifth of the community, on which 
 that Board relies, would carry the entire burden lightly ,-- 
 would increase the amount without increasing the weight 
 and supply funds as fast as missionaries could be found to 
 ' expend them ;' and in the mean time advance proportionatelv 
 in all her other benevolent operations. And this, my Lora, 
 
 is that very New England, which has lately demolished her 
 State Religious Establishments. Does she want them again, 
 think you, my Lord ? And such too is the common spirit of 
 the wide community. 
 
 " I have before merely intimated the resolution of the 
 American Bible Society to offer compact with the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, and other kindred institutions, to give 
 the Bible to the whole tvorld in twenty years ! This resolution, 
 it is expected, will be brought to London by an American dele- 
 gation next May. I will not presume to predict how it will 
 be entertained here. But I assure you, my Lord, that America 
 is in earnest in this proposal, and I hope she will not be 
 left alone. I assure you that America has not come to 
 this determination, without having done something in the way 
 of counting the cost. In two years she has given the Bible 
 to every family in the Republic, that was without it, and would 
 accept it. In two years she has filled the whole land with 
 ISabbath schools, where they were wanting. And these are only 
 so many single expressions of the spirit, promptitude, and ef- 
 fective energy of voluntary associations. They outstrip ever}' 
 thing, but the wings of hope, and the ardour of a genuine 
 Christian philanthropy. When convened at their great anni- 
 versaries, the state and prospects of the country and of the 
 world, morally and religiously, are spread out before them. 
 The past is reviewed, the present surveyed, and the possible in 
 futurity is made a subject of calculation from experience ; and 
 then, together with a cherished remembrance of all incipient 
 and progressive measures, some great and sublime resolution is 
 propounded — is discussed — is carried — and each goes to his 
 field of labour and of influence, to attempt what in faith and 
 prayer had been resolved." Pages 51 — 53. 
 
 These statements are well- fitted to confirm in our 
 minds the conviction, that we are always safe in follow- 
 ing Bible principles, and that in proportion as we hum- 
 bly do so, in the spirit of diffidence of ourselves and 
 confidence in God, God will bless us, and " prosper the 
 work of our hands.'' 
 
 I have detained the meeting much too long. I must 
 conclude, by expressing it as my deliberate sentiment, 
 that the connection between Church and State, which 
 we seek to abolish, is injurious to both ; that, in its 
 principle, it is unscriptural, impolitic, and unjust, — and, 
 in its consequences, in many ways pernicious : — that, by 
 the disunion of the two, the State will be freed from 
 
 c 
 
26 
 
 many burdens, and drags, and disquietudes, which im- 
 pede its government, disturb its peace, and mar its 
 prosperity ;— and that the Church,— all invidious dis- 
 tinctions being at an end,— all parties placed on an equal 
 footing,— will put forth new eneigies, bring into opera- 
 tion all her resources, grow in union, and, with a holy 
 emulation of love and zeal, carry forward the cause of 
 God to the triumph of its millennial glory ;— when the 
 knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the 
 waters cover the sea. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 EXPOSURE FURTHER EXPOSED. 
 
 i 
 
 There are some points touched upon in the foregoing 
 Speech, to which, as well as to the strictures whicli the 
 views given of them have called forth, I may take a fu- 
 ture opportunity of again adverting. I embrace the 
 occasion now afforded me of offering a few remarks on 
 a long note in reference to my " Exposure Exposed," 
 affixed to the third edition of the Exposure, by its 
 anonymous author, Anglo-Scotus. 
 
 With regard to the stf/le of my " Exposure Exposed," 
 those only are competent judges of its appropriateness 
 who have read Anglo-Scotus ; and to their judgment 
 I can, with all confidence, leave the decision, whether the 
 severity was or was not deserved. Let those condemn 
 who have not learned to discriminate between the treat- 
 ment merited by a nameless and dark defamer, and that 
 which is due to an open and honest opponent. The use 
 made of the terms of severe reprehension by Anglo- 
 Scotus himself, I quite anticipated. I did not expect 
 the writer of such a pamphlet either to be very sensible 
 of their appropriateness, or, if sensible of it, ingenuously 
 to acknowledge it. The style has been designated, by- 
 others as well as by him, wrathful. Never was there a 
 greater mistake. While I was satisfied that there were 
 no terms of condemnation too strong for the whole spirit 
 and character of the " New Exposure," I can assure 
 Angio-Scotus and all whom it may concern, that my 
 fitrictures upon it were written, not in the heat of pas- 
 
 < 
 
28 
 
 sion, but with perfect deliberation, and in the calmness 
 of imperturbable scorn. I do not feel at all surprised, 
 that in the periodical organ of the Church strong language 
 should occasionally be applied to myself. It is no more 
 than what might be expected. But, on the present occa- 
 sion, I must be allowed to express much more than sur- 
 prise, that in a work professedly conducted on Christian 
 principles, while wrath, and bitterness, and even impiety, 
 or something that " looks very like it," are ascribed to 
 me, such a production as that of Anglo-Scotus should 
 pass without the slightest note of disapprobation ! Is it, 
 indeed, possible, I have said to myself, that the species 
 of warfare to which that writer has had recourse can be 
 approved ? Or, if it be approved by the Editors of that 
 periodical, am I to consider this as at all a standard of 
 opinion and feeling on the subject among the ministers 
 and members of the Establishment ? I will not — I can- 
 not. I have more respect for the judgment of many 
 whom I know, and a higher estimate of their Christian 
 principle, than to believe it. I know there are some in 
 the Church, and I persuade myself there are many, who 
 are ashamed of the pamphlet of Anglo-Scotus, and hold 
 it in no less detestation than I do myself. 
 
 The Note is of a piece with the pamphlet : — the au- 
 thor of the pamphlet alone could have given birth to the 
 note : — it fathers itself. Anglo-Scotus, it will be recol- 
 lected, had said, " Let the Rev. Dr Wardlaw tell us, if 
 he does not know a Voluntary Church in Glasgow in the 
 debt of about £9,000?" What will the Public say of 
 the candour — what will they say of the principle of the 
 man, who is capable of evading the charge of having 
 published a false representation of the fact as to the 
 amount of debt on the said chapel, by the despicable 
 subterfuge that his words are not a statement ; they are 
 only, forsooth, a gueri/ ! Yet such is actually the ground 
 which Anglo-Scotus takes. *' Of the debt," says he, 
 " I had made no statement whatever :" — " A false state- 
 ment it could not be justly called — for a statement at 
 all, false or true, it was not." I should reckon it a 
 waste of words to offer a single comment on an evasion 
 so palpable, and withal so paltry, and so unprincipled. 
 
 29 
 
 *' I confided," he says, " in my informant's accuracy, and 
 mtroduced into my query concerning it the sum which 
 I believed it to be:"— Yes, and intended that the public 
 also should believe it to be. Surely, if his Church 
 friends were not ashamed of him before, they cannot but 
 blush for him now. Phoh ! 
 
 Anglo-Scotus says, that "respecting the Doctor's 
 meetmg-house, only one statement had by him been pub- 
 lished." Well, and what was it ? It ran in these terms : 
 —that " in England and in Scotland, and particularly 
 in the city of Glasgow, money has for some time past 
 been begged from persons of all religious denomina- 
 tions, nay, even from elders of the Establishment, for 
 keeping out of the hands of creditors Dr Wardlaw's 
 meeting-house— that stupendous specimen of Voluntary 
 speculation." And what will the public think again of 
 the candour and the principle of the man, who, having 
 recourse to another evasion, and one, if possible, more 
 pitiful still, unblushingly affirms respecting the " Ex- 
 posure Exposed," that " from the beginning to the end 
 of it, there is not to be found a direct contradiction to 
 any one statement which Anglo-Scotus has published ?" 
 This is passing strange ; if indeed any thing disingenuous 
 can be strange from such a quarter. I will not, in refu- 
 tation of this extraordinary assertion, have recourse to 
 the italics prefixed to the amount collected for the liqui- 
 dation of the debt during the last three years — '' contri- 
 
 hiUed exclusively by the church and congregation ;" of 
 
 which " italics" he says, " they seem used to insinuate a 
 denial of my statement respecting the begging of assist- 
 ance — but they really do nothing of the sort !" Neither 
 will I have recourse to the terms of Mr Farie's letter, 
 m which the statement is pronounced, and with the em- 
 phasis of italics too — ''jalse in every particular^ But 
 I appeal to the common sense of mankind, what consti- 
 tutes the most unequivocal and satisfactory kind of de- 
 nial : — Whether it does not consist in such a simple and 
 honest exhibition of facts as clearly and completely dis- 
 proves and falsifies the statement ? After such an exhi- 
 bition of facts has been presented, nothing can be more 
 migatory — nothing more thoroughly a work of superero- 
 
30 
 
 gation, than formally to set about deducing the in- 
 ference, and putting the denial into words. Is not a 
 matter of fact denial incomparably more satisfactory 
 than a verbal denial ? The public will think so — and 
 will treat with the disdain which it deserves this se- 
 cond unworthy quirk. 
 
 But does the matter of fact statement really amount to 
 a denial? Anglo-Scotus says it does not. And how 
 does he establish his negation ? How, but by going 
 back to certain contributions which were received from 
 Christian friends of different religious persuasions at the 
 time when the chapel was erected ! Will Anglo-Scotus 
 lay his hand on his heart and say, whether these were, 
 hondjide^ the contributions he had in his mind when he 
 penned the charge that "for some tijvie past money 
 has been begged from persons of all religious denomina- 
 tions, in England and in Scotland, to keep Y^k Ward- 
 law's MEETING-HOUSE OUT OF THE HANDS OF CREDI- 
 TORS ?" W^ho can believe it? What have sums contri- 
 buted fifteen years ago to do with the begging of money 
 at all hands ''''for some time past f — and what have sums 
 contributed towards the erection of a place of worship to 
 do with mendicant solicitations " to keep it out of the 
 hands of creditors T — solicitations necessitated of course 
 by the pressing importunities of these creditors during 
 the said " some time past !" — t. e, recently, and even 
 now! Where is the ingenuousness of the man, who, 
 finding that he was not in possession of a single fact to 
 support his charge, endeavours to blind the eyes of his 
 readers by referring to contributions which have no more 
 relation to his " some time past" than if they had been 
 given for the building of Noah's ark? Had Anglo-Sco- 
 tus charged us with havhig asked and received contri- 
 butions at the time when the Chapel was built, and that 
 had been denied by us, his reply would have been rele- 
 vant and conclusive : — but, as the matter actually stands, 
 it must be classed with the two former, as a third most 
 unworthy evasion. 
 
 The acknowledgment, in the prefixed notice, of the 
 contributions referred to, has been characterized as " tar- 
 dy." My readers will believe me when I say, that the 
 
 81 
 
 sole cause of the omission of such acknowledgment was, 
 not any unwillingness to make it, but the simple and 
 natural circumstance that my mind was fixed entirely on 
 what was of recent date by the " some time past'' of 
 Anglo-Scotus ; so that what was done at the erection of the 
 Chapel never once occurred to me till after publication, 
 when, to more than one of my friends, I expressed my 
 regret that it had not, lest, in the present sensitive state 
 of public feeling, the omission should be construed into 
 a lack of ingenuousness and gratitude. 
 
 With regard to the deduction made, in estimating the 
 amount of debt on the Chapel, of the value of cellarage, 
 there is not, I presume, an intelligent merchant in the 
 city, who does not recognise the legitimacy and reason- 
 ableness of the principle on which that deduction pro- 
 ceeds — And while I leave that item to the decision of 
 mercantile men, I feel no diflSculty in leaving to the com- 
 mon sense of the public the extraordinary charge against 
 my own veracity, so ingeniously extracted from my re- 
 presenting the statement respecting George-Street Cha- 
 pel as B. specimen or sample of the contents at large of 
 Anglo-Scotus's pamphlet. Since a sample is a specimen 
 of the whole, I have, it seems, by so representing it, 
 affirmed the whole to be equally false with this part, and 
 affirmed it, not indeed contrary to knowledge, but at any 
 rate without knowledge ! If this is the only way in 
 which an imputation can be thrown on my veracity, my 
 character is in no great jeopardy. Was there a single 
 reader, I wonder, who misunderstood me, when, after 
 having spoken of a specimen and a sample, I put the hy- 
 pothetical question, " If there be just the same propor- 
 tion of truth in other representations as in this querv. 
 
 How much will there be in the pamphlet?'' I may now 
 conclude, after what has been stated, by putting the same 
 hypothetical question in a somewhat different form :— 
 "If there be just as much principle in his other repre- 
 sentations as there is in his defence of this — query, How 
 much will there be in the pamphlet ? " 
 
 Who Anglo-Scotus is, I know not, for I am not en- 
 titled to proceed upon whispers and surmises. When 
 he speaks of the Trustees of George- Street Chapel as 
 
32 
 
 •* bent on having his name," he adds, " tohich was out of 
 the question,'' And why was it out of the question ? It 
 could be for one reason only, — that all masked assassins 
 are dastards. I say again, let no one condemn such lan- 
 guage as too strong, who has not read, and considered, 
 and compared with the spirit and precepts of the New 
 Testament, the entire pamphlet of Anglo-Scotus. 
 
 With regard to the Glasgow City Churches^ I have 
 only to repeat, that it was distinctly on the understand- 
 ing of its official character and authority, that I inserted 
 the statement which has since occasioned so keen a con- 
 test ; — and to add, that, as one important item in it turns 
 out to be avowedly not official — I mean the £8689 12s. 
 6d. of interest, charged " in name of rent," — I set it 
 aside. Let the reader observe, however, on what ground. 
 The charge may be perfectly correct and fair; — it 
 may rest on principles of calculation palpably legiti- 
 mate ; — but it is not official ; which, from the title of the 
 statement I had, inadvertently, conceived the whole to 
 be. Were another impression called for of the " Expo- 
 sure Exposed" I should, on this account alone^ leave it 
 out. In the meantime, I express no judgment on the 
 merits of the statistical and arithmetical controversy to 
 which it has given rise ; a controversy into which, im- 
 portant as it is in its own place, I have neither leisure 
 nor inclination minutely to enter. It is in excellent 
 hands. 
 
 1 
 
 MEMORIAL. 
 
 To THE Right Honourable Earl 
 Grey, as Head of His Majesty^s 
 A.dministration. 
 
 We, inhabitants of the city and vicinity of Glasgow, 
 assembled at a Public Meeting, beg leave to present to your 
 Lordship the following 3Iemorial, on the civil Establishment 
 of Religion within the British Empire, and on the injui-y 
 done to the cause of Christianity, and the many evils accru- 
 ing to Dissenters, from the existence and influence of that 
 Establislunent. 
 
 We approach your Lordship with sentiments of sincere and 
 profound respect, for your eminent talents and acquirements, 
 and the great services which, in circumstances of uncommon 
 difficulty and peril, you have been honoured to render to 
 your country; and Ave have too much confidence in your 
 Lordship's manliness and candour to apprehend that your 
 Lordship will take oftence, if, in this our Memorial, we speak 
 with a freedom and a boldness, befitting the solemn impor- 
 tance of the subjects to which it refers, the character of the 
 present crisis, and our own standing and rights as freemen. 
 
 From the addresses which have already been presented to 
 your Lordship by dissenting bodies in various parts of the 
 Empire, your Lordship's mind must be familiar with the 
 leading facts respecting the numbei-s and the exertions of Uie 
 Dissenters. In Scotland, there are from 700 to 800 congre- 
 gations not connected with the National Church; and although 
 in some of the great towns, as in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
 as well as in many rural districts, the number of worshippers 
 among Dissenters greatly exceeds that in the communion of 
 the Establishment, we are not prepared to affirm on which 
 side the majority lies, taking Scotland as a whole. Like 
 their brethren in England, the Scottish Dissenters build and 
 uphold their places of worship at their own expense ; they 
 
34 
 
 35 
 
 M 
 
 contribute liberally for the support of their own poor ; they 
 bear their share in the expenses connected with the support 
 of the poor, belonging to the community in general, where 
 tJiese are defrayed by assessment ; and they contribute largely 
 to various benevolent and religious Institutions for the bene- 
 fit of their own country, of the remote dependencies of 
 (Treat Britain, and of other lands. 
 
 The special grievances of which Scottish Dissenters have 
 to complain, and for the redress of which they desire the in- 
 fluence of your Lordship, and of your Lordship's colleagues, 
 are these. They are compelled to contribute to the erection 
 and repairs of edifices in which they do not worship, to the 
 payment of ministers of religion from whose sei-vices they 
 derive no advantage, and to the support of a system from 
 many parts of which they conscientiously dissent. Many of 
 their members are harassed and injured by processes at law, 
 to which the building of churches, or the augmentation of 
 the salary of incumbents, frequently and unavoidably gives 
 occasion. In consequence of the subjection of parochial 
 education to the local ecclesiastical authorities, they are ex* 
 eluded, not, indeed, from the seminaries for the instruction 
 of their youth, but from the place of Teachers, in the 930 
 parishes of Scotland, as they also are virtually from Profes- 
 sorships in the Colleges. While from these causes, and 
 others that shall be named, they feel that they are regarded 
 as a discountenanced and degraded caste by the existing laws 
 of their country, — it must be added, that occupying, as they do, 
 common ground as Dissenters with their English brethren, tliey 
 cannot but feel alive to the peculiar injuries inflicted on Dis- 
 senters in that department of the Empire, and consider these as 
 injuring and stigmatizing the whole Dissenting botly, and as 
 dishonourable to the country in which they exist. Your Lord- 
 sliip will understand us to refer to the unjust and compulsory 
 abstraction of the money of Dissenters to maintain a worship 
 which they conscientiously disown ; and to the interdicting of 
 legal marriage, the right of sepulture in the public cemeteries, 
 the advantage of the common registers, and even of access 
 to the national seats of learning, except on the humiliating 
 4;ondition of conformity to the dominant church. 
 
 We can hardly believe it possible that your Lordship can 
 shut your eyes to the flagrant wickedness of these imposi- 
 tions. In the name of sacred justice, we ask your Lordship, 
 
 whether, placing yourself and the religious party to which 
 your Lordship belongs, in the room of Dissenters, you can 
 affirm that you are doing to others as you would that others 
 should do unto you ? With what sentiments would the breasts 
 of your Lordship and of churchmen in general be filled 
 were Dissenters, in their turn, to treat you, as you continue 
 to treat Dissenters? What have Dissenters done to their 
 country, to its government, to your Lordship, to merit the 
 continuance of these long inflicted injuries? Is it for the 
 honour of the Government of Great Britain, thus to brand 
 and stigmatize, without cause, so large and so virtuous a por- 
 tion of her people? Can that government claim the char- 
 acters, just, impartial, paternal, that consents to perpetuate 
 these wTong-s ? Looking up to Almighty God, the Patron of 
 righteousness, or judging as between man and man, can your 
 Lordship believe it safe, thus to intermingle injustice with 
 the institutions and administration of the State ; and to sap 
 the foundations of public virtue by so inuring all classes of 
 the people to the spectacle of legalized unrighteousness, as 
 to accustom them to look upon it without emotion ? Above 
 all, can your Lordship imagine that the sacred cause of 
 Christianity can ever be advanced, can fail to be retarded in 
 its progress, and dishonoured in the public view, by its overt 
 association, in the constitution and practice of a great coun- 
 ti-y, with this system of injustice and wrong ? Your Lord- 
 ship will forgive us for expressing our conviction, that a small 
 degree of generosity, or of justice, directed to the Dissenters, 
 by Churchmen and by the State, or even of due regard to 
 the honour of their own name, and that of our common 
 country, would have induced them, long ago, to concede to 
 Dissenters those claims which they now cease to ask as a 
 boon, but demand as matter of riirht. 
 
 y\ e go farther. We cannot but trace these grievances to 
 the unscriptural and sinful alliance of the Church with the 
 Stale ; nor shall we ever regard our just claims as conceded, 
 or the religion of Christ placed in circumstances the most 
 favourable for its triumph in our countiy, until this alliance 
 be finally dissolved. We avow to your Lordship the follow- 
 ing principles : 
 
 No human government has the right of interposing betwixt 
 God and the consciences of the people, by legislating in reli- 
 gious matters ; which is the province, not of man, but of God. 
 
86 
 
 The Church of Christ is, by his high appointment, inde- 
 pendent of the kingdoms of this >vorld, receiving its consti- 
 tution, doctrines, and laws, from Him only; nor has the 
 Christian Church any Head, supreme or subordinate, but 
 Jesus Christ, her only Lord and King. 
 
 The State has no more right to interfere with the Christian 
 Church (except with the civil obedience of her members in 
 all lawful things), than the Christian Church has to interfere 
 with the State. Nor would it be a greater usurpation and 
 presumption for the Church to legislate for the State, than for 
 the State to legislate for the Church. 
 
 The legislative enactment of a particular creed, and endow- 
 ment of a particular sect, is injustice to the rest of the com- 
 munity ; as it compels the dissenting portion of the subjecU. 
 and that in opposition to their conscientious convictions, io 
 contribute to the favoured sect; as it inflicts a pecuniary 
 penalty for nonconformity; and as it adds a stigma to that 
 penalty, so that persecution, more or less severe, is inherent 
 in the character, (as it has invariably been apparent in the 
 history,) of every exclusive establishment of religion. 
 
 Your Lordship will not, we trust, lend your ear t(» the 
 averment, that with whatever inconveniences a civil establish- 
 ment of religion may be attended, it is necessai^ for the pre- 
 servation of religion, especially in the poorer districts of the 
 land. Can your Lordship believe that that is necessary for 
 the preservation of Christianity, for which Jesus Christ and 
 his apostles have made no provision? Can your Lordship 
 cast your eyes on the state of England and not perceive that 
 to voluntary exertion, in a great degree, it is indebted for 
 the religious instruction it enjoys-that in the poorer districts 
 pre-eminently, as in Wales, religious instruction is derived 
 from the Dissenters mainly— and that the constitution and 
 administration of the Established Church— particularly as 
 appearing in the unwise elevation of its dignitaries to a place 
 among the peers of the realm, a position the most alien from 
 their character and their duties, as pi-ofessedly ministers of a 
 kingdom not of this world, to which they have no more offi- 
 cial right than any similar number of other ministers of the 
 gospel, and from which the suffrages of the empire wouW 
 indignantly displace them; in the constant agitation and 
 scramble for clerical preferment exhibited to the public eye ; 
 in the buying and selKng of livings like any marketable 
 
 37 
 
 commodity ; in the vesting of the disposal of these livings, for 
 obviously secular purposes, in the Crown, in the Bishops, in 
 Corporations, in the Aristocracy, and in other evils which it 
 is unnecessary to name ;-that these have alienated from the 
 Established Church the great body of the English people, and 
 have done more to prevent the progress of true piety, and to 
 tavour irrehgion, immorality, and infidelity, than any other 
 causes that can be assigned for their prevalence. 
 
 We may add, that the relative numbers of Churchmen and 
 Dissenters seem to render a change in the existing arrange- 
 inents indispensable to the satisfaction of the empire. Your 
 Lordship IS aware, that the highest authorities on the consti- 
 tution have conceded, that the only reason that can justify the 
 preference of one sect is, that it outnumbers the rest. Yet 
 your Lordship must know, that even this pretext ceases, by 
 whatever standard the numbers of those connected, and not 
 connected, with the established sects may be determined the 
 termer now forming but a minority in the empire ; while that 
 minority is virtually reduced by the rapidly growing numbers 
 withm the pale of the Establishments who avow the convic- 
 tion, that the time for legal compulsion in religion has passed 
 away— that it is as unjust that Dissenters should be taxed for 
 the support of the Established worship, as that the adherents 
 of the latter should be taxed for the worship of the Dissenters 
 —and that the honour and peace of the empire, and the ad- 
 vancement of true Christianity in the land, require, that the 
 alliance of the Church with the State should be dissevered 
 that religion should be left to the free support of its friends' 
 and that all denominations in the empire should be placed, as 
 tellow-citizens, on the same level. 
 
 The more rancorous enemies of the Dissenters, it cannot 
 be unknown to your Lordship, labour most industriously to 
 impress the public mind with the conviction, that the pre- 
 sent movements against civil Establishments of religion origi- 
 nate in a plot to accomplish the destruction of the Church 
 in a desire to participate in her spoils, and in personal hos' ' 
 tihty towards her functionaries. Before God and our coun- 
 try we repel with indignation these most calumnious fictions; 
 we defy oui- opponents to point to a shadow of evidence in 
 their support ; and ,ve cannot but trust that your Lordship 
 and your Lordship's colleagues, are too candid and too just, 
 to receive these unsubstantiated charges, of which the princi- 
 
 D 
 
38 
 
 39 
 
 ,le, the characters, the measures, and the wrmngs of U.e 
 Accused, afford ample and irrefragable refutatmn. 
 
 On these grounds, «e implore your Lordsh.p to take U.e 
 condition of the Dissenters, and their claims, injo your nmture 
 and candid consideration. From no hand would hey receive 
 L concession of these clainis more gladly tl-nj'om to ot 
 vour Lordship; but we cannot forbear expressing oui pefiua- 
 lion, that baL as these are, on reason on eqmty and on 
 he ;ord of God, and now demanded by the vo.ce oo large 
 and influential a portion of the Br.tish people, it «'" ""^ be 
 Lch longer in the power of any JUnistry, or of Parbament 
 itself, to refuse them. 
 
 Siffiied by the Chairman in name and by appomtment 
 of the Meeting, held at Glasgow, 6th March, 1834. 
 
 JAMES JOHNSTON. 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 To THE Honourable the Commons of Great Britajn 
 AND Ireland, in Parliament assembled, 
 
 The Humble Petition of the Undersigned Jn- 
 habitants of the City of Glasgow and t/s 
 Vicinityy 
 
 ^"^"S your Petitioners beg leave to represent to your 
 Honourable House the unfavourable circumstances m wh.d 
 Mtish Dissenters are still placed; to exp«ss iheir convict.... 
 
 ha these and other evils »-V^"'H''^r'^st^ bl t 
 encc of the connection of the Church w.th the Sfte, by th 
 Stution and Laws of Great Uritain; and to Pet.t.ou 
 ^nr Honourable House to redress tl- evils compamedo 
 by removing the cause to which, in tl.e judgment of your 
 Petitioners, they are to be as.a-.bed. 
 
 'l-hat your Petitioners have first to compla.n of the gr.e- 
 ance, of ScottUh Dissenters, in their being compelled to con- 
 
 tribute, directly or indirectly, to the support of a Church, 
 whose spiritual prosperity they sincerely desire, but from 
 
 which they rx)nscientiously remain in a state of separation 
 
 in the exclusion of their Members from the Parochial Schools 
 in the quality of Teachers, from Professorships in the Uni- 
 versities, or from any other place of civil emolument or hon- 
 our, accessible exclusively to Churchmen— and in their being 
 regarded in the eye of the Law as disqualified or degraded, 
 on account of their Dissent 
 
 That your Petitionei-s sympathize with the grievous wrongs 
 done to their English brethren, regarding these, as if they 
 were inflicted on themselves; in their being compelled to 
 support a Church of which they disapprove — in their being 
 interdicted from Legal JVIarriage, from Sepulture in the pub- 
 lic Cemeteries, from tlie advantages of Registration, and even 
 of admission to the Seats of Learning, unless at the expense 
 of express or virtual conformity, in opposition to their con- 
 scientious convictions— and in the stigma affixed to them by 
 these and other legal indignities, which, in the estimation of 
 your Petitionei-s, it is as dishonourable and unjust in the law 
 to inflict, as it is painful for the Dissenters to endure. 
 
 That the real origin of these wrongs is to be found, in the 
 interference of the Legislature with the religious belief and 
 practice of the subjects ; in the selecting of one sect, or of 
 more, for exclusive establishment and endowment; and in the 
 unjust and mischievous elevation of the Dignitaries of a fa- 
 voured Sect to a place in the Legislature ; measures against 
 which your Petitioners complain to your Honourable House, 
 as unsanctioned by Jesus Christ and his Apostles — as opposed 
 to the letter and spirit of their inspired injunctions — as a 
 presumptuous intrusion on the part of the Civil Power into a 
 department of duty which lies exclusively betwixt man and 
 his Maker — as essentially unjust, compelling the whole com- 
 munity to contribute to the suppprt of one favoured Party, 
 inflicting on all Dissenters the penalty of a Tax for their 
 conscientious nonconformity, and virtually or expressly 
 branding them as a discountenanced and merely tolerated caste 
 — as tending to the disunion of the membei-s of the State, 
 who ought to be equally favoured, if their submission and 
 fidelity be equal — and as not only unnecessary to the inte- 
 rests of religion, but hostile to the purity and independence 
 
40 
 
 of the Christian Church, and the influence of true Christian- 
 ity among the people. 
 
 That in the judgment of your Petitioners, the pretext for 
 the continuance of this system of injustice, favouritism, and 
 mischief, arising from its being approved of by the great 
 body of the nation, can no longer be pleaded ; since it is 
 unquestionable, both that those connected with the Established 
 Sects, however respectable, are now a minority in the Em- 
 pire, and that many within their pale coincide with theii* 
 Dissenting Brethren, in desiring the concession of the claims 
 of the Dissenters, and the total separation of the Church from 
 the State. 
 
 May it, therefore, please your Honoui*able House 
 to take the claims of the Dissenters into your 
 speedy and favourable consideration, to redress 
 the grievances complained of, and to take mea- 
 sures in order to the dissolution of the unjust, 
 unscriptural, and injurious connection which 
 subsists betwixt the Church and the State in this 
 country, 
 
 And your Petitioners shall ever pray. 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 
 FULLARTON AND CO. PRINTERS, VILLAFIELD.