The business of arbitration did not pertain to the pastoral office; and in the commencement of this method of settling disputes there was nothing on which an unworthy motive could operate in the management of it. When executed by the pastor, it increased his labours, held him up more conspicuously to the ruling power, and thereby increased, in respect to him, the danger of persecution. His judgment had not the authority of law, and it could be executed only by the consent of the parties at issue. No pecuniary rewards were connected with this transaction: it was considered as the work of charity. In selecting arbitrators, questions of this nature naturally arose :-Who so likely to feel a tender regard to the rights of every brother as the minister, the spiritual father of the Christian family? Who will so impartially consult the safety and welfare of each individual member, as the common shepherd of the flock? From these or

other considerations, the clergy in fact, were in all places appointed the arbitrators in civil controversies; and the practice was continued to the period of the conversion of the Roman empire. What at first was custom, was, in time, claimed as a right. The service at first performed from charity, was continued from ambition. By experiment, the clergy found that from their station, as an umpire in civil affairs, they derived power, ascendancy, and influence, and these they were not disposed to relinquish.

Individual authority being granted them in respect to personal property and civil rights, the clergy, with greater plausibility, claimed exclusive

authority in all the concerns of religion. These lay within their own province, and the regulation of them was their own appropriate duty. Step by step they proceeded to divest the people of every privilege. They deprived the laity of the liberty. of electing their minister, and of every other officer of the Church; and denied them any publick agency in the management of the common interests of the society which they composed. When Constantine was converted to the Christian faith, and the civil government became Christian, he, with the zeal of a convert, and in devotion to the priests of his new religion, confirmed the clergy in all the prerogatives they had before exercised; and ecclesiastical decisions were enforced by civil authority. Then the clergy denominated themselves ecclesiasticks, and declared that they, as a body, composed the Church, and of course assumed the whole administration of its polity. The right then left to the laymen was simply the right of submission and obedience. The people were to commit their understandings and their consciences to the guidance of their spiritual rulers, and to resign their souls to the safe keeping of the ghostly fathers.

Becoming lords of God's heritage, the clergy apportioned the emoluments of the Church among themselves. Bishops then claimed dignity, authority, and wealth, corresponding with the proud titles they assumed, and the lofty stations which they professed to fill. They usurped the exclusive power of ordination, jurisdiction over the inferior orders of the clergy, and the absolute direction of all the affairs of their diocese. Large reve

nues were appropriated for their support; their places of residence became palaces, and they were encircled with all the appendages and pomp of royalty. Ecclesiasticks then generally gave almost unbounded indulgence to the spirit of pride and ambition, against which their Divine Master pointedly and solemnly cautioned the ministers of his gospel. Before the close of the fourth century of the Christian era, the constitution, the forms, and the character of the Church of the apostolick age disappeared, and a system of domination and tyranny, of blindness and superstition was introduced.

Thankful to God for the religious freedom and light with which we are blessed, let us, my Christian brethren, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free; and may we walk as children of the light.

SERMON VIII.

THE USURPATION OF THE BISHOP OF ROME.

2 THESSALONIANS ii. 4.

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

WITHOUT comment, I shall make this text the theme of one branch of the general subject proposed for discussion, viz.

1. The primitive state of the Christian Church. 2. The manner in which ecclesiastical power and dominion were gradually assumed by the Christian priesthood.

3. The rise and extent of the usurpation of the Bishop of Rome.

4. The causes which produced the separation of protestants from the Romish Church; and the nature and extent of the Reformation.

5. The duty of protestants to act in consistency with their avowed principles, and to make progressive improvements in religious knowledge and attainments in Christian virtue, corresponding with the means of the age in which they live.

To the third proposition, our attention will at this time be directed, viz.

3. The rise and extent of the usurpation of the Bishop of Rome; and the corruptions and abuses of the Papal Hierarchy.

The supremacy, which the Bishop of Rome acquired, has not a parallel in the history of the world. Jesus Christ, the common Lord and Master of Christians, declared that his kingdom is not of this world; and he in the most express terms forbid his disciples to cherish the spirit of domination, or to exercise authority over the consciences of men in the concerns of religion. When James and John ambitiously requested the honour of sitting, one at the right hand, and the other at the left, of their Master, in his kingdom of glory, he called the twelve disciples before him, and said unto them-" Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you; but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Yet the ministers of the meek and humble Jesus, in violation of the command of their Lord, did aspire to supreme dominion, as well in civil as ecclesiastical concerns.The Bishop of Rome, claiming to be the successor of St. Peter, and the vicegerent of Christ, succeeded in the attempt to subjugate the understandings and the consciences of men to his authority, and to