is done here, than is accomplished by the church in adult baptism, except in the quantity of water applied. And superstition must surpass bedlam to assert, that a large quantity of the emblem cleanses the soul more effectually than a few drops. But here also is excitement and public stir. An ordeal is gone through before the sacred supper is tasted; and none can be a member of the table of the Baptists, though he may be of the Lord's, unless this watery rite be first submitted to, and the votary by such an act, pronounces his baptism in infancy as heretical and null, and the church as a base mother to her children.

The Baptists are a much smaller body than the Independents, and so they will ever be. But their members are complete exclusives. Spiritual pride, rancorous prejudice, a worse than bitter spirit against the church, and an utter disregard of St. James's epistle, form their prominent features. Their preaching denies the universality of the atonement; and one of their members assured me he never heard that any text could declare that Christ was the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe."

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The effects of such a system are seen in a formal profession of doctrine, as a preparation for baptism; a superstitious belief in its miraculous powers; and a sanctimonious exterior, which alas! corresponds but little with the most violent demon

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strations of pride, and worldly vanity, and a row of lamps from which light and oil have vanished. Do I here bring charges against all who are Dissenters? God forbid. I am honoured in knowing some, by whose side I would fain hope to be seated in the kingdom of Christ. But I have seen so much evil in the system of dissent-and dissenters, on the admission of these respected individuals, have become so changed, that I am desirous to give my own experience, and draw from it a salutary warning for others, who, liberal as myself, may not have seen its deformities, and therefore unwittingly might encourage its progress.

To possess or cultivate Religion without some forms, and those of daily and weekly observance, is plainly impossible for man. But we frequently see men become so familiarized with forms, as to lose the true spirit of christianity, and whilst their body worships, the mind is at large with its affections in the world. Those forms which a man carries home with him, such as private stated prayer-family worship-ejaculatory prayer-a form of expression in submitting all things, small and great, to the will and superintendance of a Divine Providence-even in these, if they are at first adopted from submission to the will of a party, and not from true spiritual affection, the life will not exist, and they must become the dry bones of outward devotion. Herein it is that dissent fails in

producing its ends. Family worship, and other forms connected with this branch of domestic devotion, shall be adopted by an individual, because he is a dissenter, and not because he is a Christian. A self-delusive spirit is fostered in the man's own heart and family. He feels a complacent pride in family worship, because so many dissenters employ it, and looks on it rather as a badge of his party than of a Christian obligation.

CHAPTER IV.

THE POLITICS OF DISSENT, AND THE UNCHRISTIAN STRIFE OF MERE PARTY WARFARE.

THIS is a fruitful theme for remark, and in its abundance might serve to describe the whole system of Independent and Baptist dissent in our days. Of the Methodists I must ever speak and think in a different manner than of any other body of dissenters. As yet, they are the half-way house between the church and dissent. But how long this will continue none can tell. Only let primitive Wesleyanism, as it is impudently called, obtain the mastery, and an open warfare will soon be proclaimed by Methodism against the endowed and state-supported Church?

Politics and the chapel are synonymous terms. In the times of that soul-reviving non-conformist piety, presented to us in the lives of Baxter, Howe, and Henry, politics were left to the world, and to the church if she pleased. A political Parson was then a favourite theme of reproach; but what shall we say now, when nine dissenting

chapels out of ten possess a political teacher? The Romish principle, of the end sanctifying the means, has been often abjured as an infamous and dishonourable thing, and yet this is precisely the argument adopted by these Christian men to defend their violation of all ministerial propriety and principle. When these persons denounce the existence of institutions whose downfall, we conscientiously believe, would involve the partial destruction of Protestantism in our land, and bring on a bloody civil war, and years of revolutionary atrocity,—it is too much to expect, that Church ministers of the gospel are to remain passive spectators of the conflict.

But who, at the time of an election, are found to involve themselves in all the dust, heat, and lowest turmoil of the contest, more entirely than many dissenters? Some of these have deplored the supposed necessity of the case: have sorrowed over the fierce strife of parties have promised in their own hearts, it may be on their knees have unhesitatingly determined, never again to do more than give a silent vote: and yet, such is the influence of partizanship and dissent, without sufficient grounds for so much hostile enmity against the establishment, that in any future election, I am morally persuaded they would be again drawn into the same giddy whirlpool of the fiercest politics.