Such is their contemptible arrogance! What is their irreligious chicanery ?-They presented a "libel," as they denominate it; that is, as the word means, a defamatory satire against Mr. Stark; and among other similar ecclesiastical vagaries, are the two ensuing profound master-pieces of Presbyterian theology!

“ CHARGE II.—To defame and slander Church Courts, is a sin deserving of censure according to the word of God."

To prove which, they adduce these two citations from the Bible" Obey them that have rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account." Heb. xiii. 17. Likewise also, these dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities." Jude 8.-Narrative, p. 10.

The comical popish dogma which the Associate Presbytery of Albany assert in their "libel," and their alleged demonstration of it by the authority of the Apostles Paul and Jude, are almost as ingenious reasoning, and as exact logic, as the proof which the priests of "Babylon the Great" adduce for the papal infallibility, and the supreme and universal jurisdiction of "the Mother of Harlots and of the Beast that carrieth her." The Jesuits quote Psalm viii. 6—8. David resounded the praise of Jehovah, because he had given to man" dominion over sheep, oxen, beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea."-Ergo, say those honest and learned exemplars of the Associate Presbytery of Albany, "the sovereign pontiff of Rome is Lord God upon earth.”

"CHARGE V.-To be guilty of injurious misrepresent

ations of the acts of ministers and of Church Courts, is deserving of censure according to the word of God."

To sanction which part of their "libel," or defamatory satire, they refer us to Acts ii. 13, and Romans iii. 8, "Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine.” "As we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say: let us do evil that good may come; whose damnation is just."-Narrative, p. 11.

Can such men be enlightened and sincere when they profess to be disciples of John Knox? Is any person so laden with two burdens of assinine stupidity and doltish credulity, that he will acknowledge the "judicial procedures" of such "Church Courts" to be infallible? Who will have the affrontery, except the Associate Presbytery of Albany, to affirm, that "Jesus Christ, our glorious King, has most solemnly commanded respect and obedience to their decisions," which manifestly emanate from Babylonian arrogance and inquisitorial malignity, or from marvellous ignorance? If I had no other alternative, I should profer to "kiss the pope's toe," and then to be kicked in the mouth by that representative of the dragon's beast, than to be belied, cuffed, and trampled upon by his pitiful imitators; who, during their" judicial procedures" of "injustice and persecution," gravely adjuge, that "the honor of Christ's ordinance and the edification of his body" require us patiently to submit to the "government and discipline" of such a "judicatory;" and to believe all their contradictory, semi-impious, and stultified "decisions" to be oracles issued in the presence and by the Spirit of Him who is exalted Prince and Saviour."

H

Mr. Stark having been "libelled" by the Associate Synod, disregarded their proceedings, as the effect, not of truth and righteousness, but of interested partisans "under some strange excitement;" and, therefore, very evangelically he raised the standard of rebellion against an "Ecclesiastical Judicature" whose infatuated presumption in mandate would only have been equalled by his antichristian folly, had he obeyed it. That body, therefore, proceeded to measures which should enforce if possible their prior bull and anathema. Accordingly, the following choice specimen of Christian humility and protestant freedom was adopted.

"Whereas, due subordination to the authority of Church Courts requires any of their communion, and especially, any of their own members who may be under sentence of guilt, and who may feel themselves aggrieved by said sentence, to yield a present submission, and in the mean time to seek redress by such means as are in accordance with such subordination; therefore, resolved, that Mr. Stark be called to account, for continuing to preach in defiance" of us his rightful lords and masters.—Minutes of the Associate Synod, June 2, 1837.

The first paragraph of the narrative by the Associate Presbytery contains as much popery, when all the circumstances are considered, as one of Gregory Hellbrand's fulminations-and in the preceding "act," the Synod have embodied, in the form of a "bull-canon," all that Leo X. ever demanded of the reformers, or a popish inquisitor of an excruciated "heretic;" or a Carolina or Georgia preaching slave-driver of his lacerated victim. Look at the pictures.

There is Anne Askew upon the rack, with her whole corporeal frame dislocated, and the Romish priest reading to her " Whereas, due subordination to the authority of the court of our lord god the pope, requires you, who are under sentence of guilt, to yield a present submission, and to seek redress for your unmerited tortures, by such means as are in accordance with such subordination; therefore, ruffians, pull away, and give her one jerk more, and then carry the cursed heretic to her dungeon." That was the old papal method of obtaining redress by "due subordination."

There is Dinah tied to the whipping tree, with her back torn to one condensed mass of mashed flesh and gore, almost in a state of putrescence; and close by stands the slave-driving preacher, announcing to her-"Whereas, due subordination to our Southern domestic institutions, requires you who are a slave to yield a present submission, and to seek redress for your undeserved castigation by such means as are in accordance with such subordination; therefore, Tom, give her nine and thirty lashes more, well laid on; then put on the nigger plaster, and drive her to work." That is the Southern Christian's domestic means to "seek redress in accordance with due subordination."

That preacher of the gospel who acknowledges "due subordination" to the authority of such Church Courts, as they papistically entitle themselves, not only ought to be aggrieved by their iniquitious sentence of guilt falsely pronounced, but should be made to yield both "present submission" and ceaseless servitude. If the American

churches basely admit those claims, they will speedily become no better than "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the Rabbis "who sit in Moses' seat." Away with such worship and wondering after the Beast!

ASSOCIATE REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS.

That was a most exemplary specimen of churchcraft, when the Rabbis of that denomination, and the "workmen of like occupation" among the Presbyterians, conspired to amalgamate the Old School, and the New School, the puritan school, and the Scotch school, with them of no school, into one Babel-like confraternity. The scheming, and the turning, and the shuffling, and the twisting on that memorable occasion will never be forgotten by some of the lookers-on in Philadelphia.

When it was

Exclusive of all the other tricks, which so long engaged the hearts, and heads, and hands of those craftsmen, the finale will be held in lasting remembrance. ascertained that the proposition to unite the Associate Reformed Synod with the Presbyterian General Assembly would be adopted by a small majority,—I advert not to the manner in which it was then stated without denial, that some of the votes were secured, the next grand object was this, to obtain possession of the library-about 4,200 volumes of valuable works, which John M. Mason had collected in Britian for the Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Presbyterians. It was confidently asserted, not denied, and generally believed by all persons who were