seem strange to us, because their thoughts are different.

"How far opposition to religious innovations is justifiable, is not our business to discuss. But the experience of ages evinces the fact; and in dissimilar circumstances, Mr. Wesley has made the trial. In kingdoms, where, as in the Roman Pantheon, every divinity had its altars, speculative deviations from the religion established by law, the singularity of love-feasts and nocturnal meetings, so unusual among the modern Christians of every denomination, roused the vigilance of the magistrate, and influenced the rage of the rabble. Now, that custom has rendered Mr. Wesley's meeting-houses and mode. of worship familiar, and that all denominations enjoy a share of that religious liberty, whereof he would fain deprive his Roman Catholic neighbour, his matin hymns give no uneasiness either. to the magistrate or his neighbours. But had Mr. Wesley raised his notes on the high key of civil discordance-had he attempted by his sermons, his writings, and exhortations, to deprive the bishops of the established religion, of their crosiers; kings of their thrones; and magistrates of the sword of justice; long ere now would his pious labours have been crowned with martyrdom, and his name registered in the calendar of Fox's saints. Such, unfortunately, was the case of John Huss. Not satisfied with overthrowing what was then the established religion, and le

velling the fences of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, he strikes at the root of all temporal power, and civil authority. He boldly asserts, that "Princes, magistrates, &c. in the state of mortal sin, are deprived ipso facto of all power and jurisdiction."* In this doctrine was enveloped the seeds of anarchy and sedition, which subsequent preachers unfolded, to the destruction of peace and tranquillity, almost all over Europe; and which Sir William Blackstone describes as follows: "The dreadful effects of such a religious bigotry, when actuated by erroneous principles, even of the Protestant kind, are sufficiently evident from the history of the Anabaptists in

* See the acts of the council of Constance, in L'Abbe's Collection of Councils.

This is no imputation on the Baptists of our days, who are as peaceable and good men as any others. Men's opinions change with the times, as in different stages of life we change our thoughts, and settle at the age of forty the roving imagination of sixteen. Custom, and mutual intercourse among fellow subjects of every denomination, would soon quench the remaining sparks of religious feuds, if distinctive laws were abolished. But, unfortunately for the society in which we live, the laws, whose aim should be to unite the inhabitants, are calculated to divide them. My neighbour distrusts me, because the penal laws held me forth as a reprobate before I was born, and, during my life, encourage him to seize my horse, or drag me before a magistrate, for saying my prayers; which reduces me to the sad necessity of hating him, or considering him as an enemy, if in the great struggle between nature and grace, religion does

not

Germany, the Covenanters in Scotland, and the deluge of sectaries in England, who murdered their sovereign, overturned the church and monarchy, shook every pillar of law, justice, and private property, and most devoutly established a kingdom of saints in their stead."*

"John Huss, then, after broaching the abovementioned doctrines, and making Bohemia the theatre of intestine war, is summoned to appear before the council. He obtains a safe conduct from the emperor Sigismund, commanding governors of provinces, &c. not to molest him on his journey to, or return from, Constance; but to afford him every aid and assistance. In all the provinces and cities through which he passes, he gives public notice of his intention to appear before the council, and stand his trial. But, instead of standing his trial, and retracting his er

not triumph. Before Lewis the Fourteenth, and George the First, repealed the laws against witches, every disfigured old .woman was in danger of her life, and considered as a sorceress. Since the witch-making laws have been repealed, there is not a witch in the land, and the dairy maid is not under the necessity of using counter charms to hinder the milk from being enchanted from her pail. Thus, if the penal Jaws, which by a kind of omnipotence create an original sin, making rogues of Catholics before they reach their hands to the tempting fruit, were once repealed, they would be as honest as their neighbours, and the objects of their love and confidence.

*Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iv. chap. 8.

rors, he attempts to make his escape, in order to disseminate, and make them take deeper root. He is arrested and confined, in order that he should take his trial, after having violated his promise, and abused a safe-conduct granted him for the purpose of exculpating himself, or retracting his errors, if proved against him before his competent judges. It is here to be remarked, that John Huss was an ecclesiastic; and that in spiritual cases, the bishops were his only and competent judges. The boundaries of the two powers, I mean the church and state, being kept distinct; the censer left to the pontiff, and the sword to the magistrate; the church confined to her spiritual weapons; privation of life and limb, and corporal punishments, being quite of the province of the state; one should not interfere with the other. As the body of the criminal is under the control of the magistrate, too jealous of his privilege to permit the church to interfere with his power;-so, erroneous doctrines are under the control of spiritual judges, too jealous of their prerogatives, to permit the civil magistrate to interfere with their rights. Hence, when the partisans of Huss raised clamours about his confinement, and pleaded his safe-conduct, the council published the famous decree which has given rise to so many cavils, for the space of four hundred years, though thousands of laws of a more important nature, and of which we now think but little, have been published since that time. The coun

cil declares, "That every safe-conduct granted by the emperor, kings, and other temporal princes, to heretics, or persons accused of heresy, ought not to be of any prejudice to the Catholic faith, or to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction; nor to hinder that such persons may and ought to be examined, judged, and punished, according as justice shall require, if those heretics refuse to revoke their errors: and the person who shall have promised them security, shall not, in this case, be obliged to keep his promise, by whatever tie he may be engaged, because he has done all that is in his power to do." I appeal to the impartial public, Whether that declaration of the council does not regard the peculiar case of safe-conducts, granted by temporal princes, to persons who are liable to be tried by competent and independent tribunals? And, Whether it be not an insult to candour and common sense, to give it such a latitude as to extend it to every lawful promise, contract, or engagement, between man and man? As if the council of Constance meant to authorize me to buy my neighbour's goods, and after a solemn promise to pay him, still to keep his substance, and break my word. The church and state are two distinct and independent powers, each in its peculiar line. A man is to be tried by the church for erroneous doctrines: a temporal prince grants this man a safe-conduct, to guard his person from any violence which may be offered him on his journey; and to procure him a fair and can