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powers civil or ecclesiastical, but of the Universal Bishop only, and to pour out his soul unto death for the salvation of the people: nor to measure his preaching by any man formulary; nor to think of articles, or creeds, or confessions; nor to fear the face of clay; but to preach God's own word with all his might, and watch with all diligence for the fruits thereof. In doing so, he will both save his own soul and the souls of those that hear him. As his church increaseth, he will need elders and deacons to help him with their oversight both of things spiritual and temporal. And such he will seek out according to the apostolical rules. And having set them apart, they, looking up to him as the responsible person, will occupy their spheres according to the spirit of the same holy administration. This I take to be the way of God in the affairs of the church; and if the angels of the church will walk in this way, they may nothing doubt of his blessings upon their several charges, and through these upon the whole church, and through the church upon the whole kingdom, and through the kingdom upon the whole world. And if in carrying out this the inherent law, liberty, and power of his office, he meet with let and hindrance from the powers that be, whether civil or ecclesiastical, then is he just in the condition of his Master and his disciples, who were in like manner cast out and hunted from the earth. Be careful, brethren, to provoke no strife, and to give no offence, to acknowledge the delegated power, both civil and ecclesiastical, but to maintain the original source of power to be in Christ alone; to give a reason from his word of the hope that is in you, and the thing which you do, and so leave your faithful and true witness to work in its own way, and if need be seal it with your blood. That is all which is to be done. Speak the word which is true; do the thing which is right: stand forth and justify it, and then be ready to die for it.

Tenthly. Besides an angel, there is also a people appertaining to every church, who have their duties as well as he. And what are these? To regard themselves as the temple of the Holy Ghost, which should be holy, as the members of Christ, which should be sinless and spotless, as the witnesses to God's Fatherhood, to Christ's redemption, and to the Holy Ghost's sanctification, of

those who once were sinners. Therefore ought they ever to cry Abba, Father; and not only to cry it out, but to have the assurance of an Almighty God working with Fatherly love within them. They are witnesses to an indwelling, inworking Almighty God; and therefore they ought not to stand at works natural, but go into works spiritual or supernatural. For there is no manifesting of an Almighty God by works merely natural; things natural manifest neither the perfect goodness, nor the perfect power of God. Nature is out of course its course is evil, and Satan is its god. To take it out of his hands, proveth the power of Christ, in whom dwelleth God: and we, as being members of Christ, should look to possess this power of God in Christ; and so we should not stop at natural actions, but go on, yea be chiefly conversant with things supernatural, as having a new life striken into us, which is the life of the risen Christ, and because we are members of the one body of Christ, we should cleave together with a continual fastness, with the cleaving of an unquenchable love. And to the end the gift of the Holy Ghost may serve the two-fold purpose of striking a common life into us, and of teaching us that the same life is not complete in every person, but by the conjoining of many persons into one, the gifts are diversely given; to one the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another the gift of faith, &c.; that we may depend one upon another, and honour one another. There fore we ought to be careful against the very appearance of schism. The spirit of schism is the very contradiction of the spirit of love, and cannot co-exist with it. The member of a church, therefore, ought to cleave fast to the brethren, and grapple them to his bosom with all the fastenings of truth. Truth is the principle of all union; and wherever a man is walking in the truth, he will be walking in love towards all the brethren. And if the brethren should be standing in the truth, they must be animated with the same spirit of love; and so through the mediation of truth they cleave to one another; and a church in this way is always gathering particles to itself, and increasing its stature and its strength. Withal there grows a wonderfully sweet spirit of enjoyment, and grace and goodness, a feeling of health and strength, a glad

ness and a joyfulness, like to that which every young creature feeleth in the day of its youth. This is the way in which the church, through unity, spreads itself over the world, sows itself in every region, and takes possession of the earth. But observe, that it is not one great confederation like the Papacy, which cannot live in parts; but because the root Christ is in every member of it, it is capable in all conditions and circumstances of its own sustenance and propagation. Chop it into pieces, and disperse it as you please, you can but sow it the more widely. For wherever we go, we go preaching the word.

Eleventhly. While these things are most surely to be concluded, from the vision concerning the individual authority of every angel, and of every church, it is at the same time ever to be remembered, that the churches, however many, are still but one, are bound together into one, by the sevenfold unity of "one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." This truth is expressed in the vision, by the choice of the number seven, rather than any other, whose property it is to express many in unity. And how then, it may be asked, is this unity manifested? By God it is manifested in assigning to each its proper place in the field of battle, tempting them diversely; one by decline of first love, like Ephesus; another by fiery trials, like Smyrna; another by high dignity and learned error, like Pergamos; another by apostasy, like Thyatira; another by a hypocritical name, like Sardis; another by false brethren and feebleness, like Philadelphia; and another by temporal abundance, like Laodicea. And with these several places in the field of battle, each hath its appropriate banner under which to fight; these banners being the several parts of Christ's glorious and all-inclusive name, the several styles with which he presents himself, in the most appropriate manner to the several churches. And each also hath its word of consolation and encouragement, in the several promises of the Spirit. The unity, therefore, is a unity of spirit, and not a unity of form, a unity of end and design, not a unity of visible parts; a unity of service against the common enemy, and not a unity of constitution, like the Jewish Theocracy or the Roman hierarchy.

Each church possesseth power of life and of propagation within itself, is competent to the sending out of missionaries to preach; to the issuing canons of right faith, as indeed did many of the primitive bishops, against any error which arose; is competent to the continuation of its own ministry, as in the primitive church was shewn, by the election of the bishop or angel from amongst the presbyters; and in one word, is competent to all the functions of a body complete and perfect within itself. And yet, being so, is not separated from every other church, but acknowledgeth the one baptism, the one faith, the one hope, the one body, the one Head, the one Spirit, and the one God and Father; is engaged with the one work of resisting and overcoming the evil which is around it, which is among its hands, which is bred in its own bosom; is not unwilling to entertain the questions of other churches when submitted to it,-nor, if need be, to submit her own; is not unwilling to meet in provincial, or in general councils, when need is, for the assertion of the one faith and hope and baptism; but is not dependent upon any of these occurrences, either for the feeling or the manifestation of the unity, which standeth not in negatives so much, as in positives,-not in the prevention of evil so much, as the propagation of good. The unity of the apostolical church stood not in the council of Jerusalem, which occurred only once; but in the common faith and love and service of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the reception of the apostolical and other missionary persons, in the recognition of each other's brotherhood, and in the continual interchange of all Christian offices. The unity of the primitive churches stood not in the provincial or œcumenical synods, which, upón emergencies at first, and afterwards, as worldliness grew, and spirituality abated, convened at stated and regulated intervals. As our par

liament doth not make us freemen, but emanates from our freedom, so these synodical meetings and acts do not make the churches one, but come of their unity. They are expressions of unity, and testimonies to it, but no origin of it, nor yet necessary to its conservation.—I am the more intent upon this great point, because I perceive that in the Church of Scotland there prevaileth great misconception upon this subject. That the power to convene in Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies, is in

herent in the church, all Christendom, in all times, with one consent hath declared. And that in their apostles and elders, those who minister the word, and those who rule, have a right to convene, is also of common consent in all the churches. But that they should be ever and anon convening, with or without cause, is no where sanctioned, either in the Scriptures of truth, or in the records of ecclesiastical history. That they do so in our church, ariseth, as it seems to me, from a false notion as to where the right of superintending is reposed; which is not in councils but in persons, not in confederations of the angels, but in the persons of the angels. While I admire the liberty of our ecclesiastical polity, I cannot but acknowledge, that it presseth hard upon the dignity of the angels or bishops of the churches, whom I cannot for an instant invest with prelatical dignity over many churches, but whose authority in their several churches I will not surrender for any consideration.

Twelfthly. Therefore the jus Divinum lies with the angels of the churches, and not with any courts or councils, compose them how you may. There is a Divine right of government in the church; and these epistles shew me, that it lies in the persons of the angels, who are taken to be responsible for all the acts of the whole church, just as kings are for all the acts of the whole kingdom. Nothing to my mind can so establish a Divine right to be in one person of each church, as the continual inclusion of the whole church in him. And how is this person to be found out? And how is he to be instituted in his office? There is no mention nor hint of any such plan or method, just as there is no mention of forms of government or methods of appointing the chief magistrate of a state. And wherefore this silence? Because God would not implicate the great question of power and subjection, either in church or in state, with any such questionable matter. A staté cannot subsist without a governing head. Even Venice had its Doge, and America hath its President. No more can a church. And accordingly, from the Papal Empire, down to the last fragment of the Dissenting interest, you shall ever find some one who standeth to the rest in the place of a head. This is felt in our church to be a thing so essential, that though the moderators of the several courts be elected yearly, and some of them oftener, the