no topic and no measure should be proposed for deliberation, unless it had first been approved by the Court of Rome, and afterwards was introduced by the presiding cardinal legate. Consequently, every thing was decided exactly as "the Beast" enjoined. Rebels were vilified and ejected. The timid were menaced and affrighted. Time-servers were cajoled and bribed. The sons of false peace consented to become servants unto tribute. Thus doing "evil with both hands earnestly, they uttered their mischievous desire, and so they wrapped it up; for the best of them was a brier, and the most upright was sharper than a thorn hedge." Micah vii. 3, 4.

It might be presumed that some prelates have studied the proceedings of the chief Rabbis and craftsmen at that infamous Church Court." In the year 1837, sixty years after the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence in the United States of America, Methodist bishops claim and exercise that grand papistical and imperial prerogative to determine what subjects, resolutions, motions, and reports shall be submitted for examination and debate.

Neither Peter, nor James, nor Paul, although acknowledged by the brotherhood to be the "holy apostles of Jesus Christ," and speaking by his authority the dictates of the Holy Ghost, thus silenced all discussion at the general meeting in Jerusalem. Barnabas, Paul, Peter, and James, although they were all commissioned by their "exalted Prince and Saviour," spake not one word until after they were wearied out with the "much disputing" of the brethren and the elders. Notwithstanding, modern

prelates, who promised to "shew themselves gentle," execute the most objectionable usurpation which either hierarchical or regal tyranny ever devised, for the imprisonment of the mind, for the debasement of the heart, and for the extinction of conscience.

If, however, at his "ordaining," the bishop actually "received the Holy Ghost for his office and work," it is certain that every person is bound implicitly to admit that all his acts are infallible. Therefore, the Methodist "incendiary fanatics" are involved in this difficulty ;—in refusing to couch down to that prelatical burden, either they rebel against the highest lawful jurisdiction, or they only oppose resolute manufacturers of unscriptural authority. There they are squeezed and incarcerated in that dilemma. The Lord grant that they may be extricated in triumph, by the rooting up of the Beast's horns!

DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE.

It is the established doctrine of the Methodist Episcopal church, that all persons who are admitted into their societies shall desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins." That solicitude must be shown by its fruits. Among which evidences, it is emphatically announced, that they shall not buy or sell men, women, or children, with an intention to enslave them." In other words, they shall not hold slaves, although they may purchase human beings expressly for immediate emancipation.

66

In section 9th of the "Temporal Economy of the Methodist Episcopal Church," it is declared" When

any travelling preacher becomes an owner of a slave or slaves, by any means, he shall forfeit his ministerial character in our church, unless he executes a legal emancipation of such slaves." Nevertheless, the Methodist travelling preachers drive and traffic slaves, and say,"Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich;" and although they are professed" shepherds of the flock of the slaughter," yet they pity not the sheep who are "drawn unto death, and ready to be slain."

It is also enacted-" No slaveholder shall be received into full membership in our society, till the preacher has spoken to him freely and faithfully on the subject of slavery :”—which, if it means any thing conformably to the declaration in "the Nature, Design, and General Rules of our United Societies," it must imply that the slaveholder is a hypocrite in offering himself for membership, and that the preacher is either an idiot or a treacherous watchman.

It is also declared in section 9th-" Every member of the society who sells a slave, except for mercy and humanity, shall be expelled the society." The same censure is directed against all those who buy slaves, and will not "execute a legal deed for their emancipation." Remember that proviso :-to sell "men, women, and children with an intention to enslave them, is mercy and humanity," in a man who never "desired to be saved from his sins!" Self-contradiction can no farther go. Notwithstanding all those rules, Southern Methodists are slaveholders, who buy, sell, and exchange men, women, and children, even their nominal fellow Christians, with

F

no more sensibility or remorse, than they would purchase a calf, or traffic a horse.

That inconsistency and violation of all decorum and Christian uprightness are perfectly venial, when compared with another part of the system. Honest Methodists, who hold fast their profession," are reviled and persecuted. As the natural consequence, the decisions of ecclesiastical assemblies have lost their influence. Such wilful departure from the faith and discipline, unless it is duly repented of and a prompt reformation take place, must insure the inscription of Ichabod upon the churches. In all other cases than "Ecclesiastical Judicatures," any community who would thus act, would be deemed unworthy of social intercourse, except with persons guilty of similar turpitude.

The ensuing specimen illustrates the ugliness and mischiefs of that churchcraft which may aptly be delineated in "the words of Agur," Prov. xxx. 13, 14—“ O how lofty its eyes! and its eyelids are lifted up; whose teeth are as swords, and its jaw-teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men."

A Methodist preacher had within his circuit a milliner, whose business was a public benefit for the convenience of the vicinity. As she had no children, the profits of her shop were chiefly devoted by her, with her husband's cordial assent, to the purposes of Christian benevolence, and to hospitality for the entertainment of ministers of the gospel and other Christian brethren. On several occasions that preacher sharply reproved Mrs. D. for putting knots of ribbon on the women's bonnets which

were made by her. She modestly excused herself, that she was obliged to comply with the orders which were given to her, or that she must dismiss her operatives, and abandon the business. The preacher, Mr. Y., haughtily warned her against sanctioning that conformity to the world, which the Methodist discipline, according to his exposition of it, so sternly condemned. Perplexed by his menacing rebukes, Mrs. D. at length informed her husband of the colloquies which she and their preacher had held. When Mr. Y. again visited the house, Mr. D. was present. After the minister had finished his caustic lecture to Mrs. D., her husband coolly remarked to this effect:—“ Mr. Y., you say that coats cut short and round in front, are part of the pomps and vanities of this wicked world. Now I wish that you would answer me one question-When you carried on the tailoring business in B., did you refuse to make coats, because persons would have them shaped contrary to your notion, and our Methodist fashion?" The preacher's pride was so mortified, that after uttering a severe reprimand, he instantly left them in all the feeling of wounded priestly dignity.

Mr. Y. promptly complained of Mr. D. to the Quarterly Conference for wantonly insulting him. The popular opinion, both of the members of the Methodist church, and of all the other Christian brethren around, was decidedly against the preacher. Nevertheless, to avoid a convulsion in the society, through the minister's unbending obstinacy, that " Church Court" decided, that Mr. D. should apologize to Mr. Y. for his unintentional offence. Mr. D. assented, provided the preacher would promise no