The great iron wheel : or, Republicanism backwards and Christianity reversed : in a series of letters addressed to J Soule, Senior Bishop of the Church, South . if you dare. You will be guilty of speaking un-charitably or unprofitahly and evil of your ministers,which is expressly forbidden on pain of exclusion. TheDiscipline forbids uncharitable or unprofitable conversa-tion ; particularly speaking evil of magistrates and ministers.*—Dis. p. I, Chap, xi., sec. 11. Exclusion here stares in theface the one disposed to condemn clerical iniquity and in-trigue. Here is one of the first principl
The great iron wheel : or, Republicanism backwards and Christianity reversed : in a series of letters addressed to J Soule, Senior Bishop of the Church, South . if you dare. You will be guilty of speaking un-charitably or unprofitahly and evil of your ministers,which is expressly forbidden on pain of exclusion. TheDiscipline forbids uncharitable or unprofitable conversa-tion ; particularly speaking evil of magistrates and ministers.*—Dis. p. I, Chap, xi., sec. 11. Exclusion here stares in theface the one disposed to condemn clerical iniquity and in-trigue. Here is one of the first principles of Protestantismrenounced, one of the crowning glories of Christianity dis-honored and rejected. Art. 14th. Whenever the members of a church resignthe right of suffrage, and of discussing freely and fearlesslythe conduct of their rulers, whether it be done by directconcession, or indirectly by attaching themselves to, andcontinuing within the pale of a Church where such a systemof polity obtains, they renounce, to a fearful extent, one ofthe first principles of the Protestant religion, and bring dis-honor upon its name. Whenever spiiitual rulers attempt. Mn-iioniSM ha.« defined, Religion on liorsel)ack. Thi.« would be a IxHer dciinitionThe IRKAOiRn^ o>- TiiK IKorLFs —rage :0T. REPUBLICANISM BACKWARDS. 807 to check a perfectly free communication of thoughts andfeelings among the people—when the lips and the pens ofthe laity are interdicted, without their oversight and license—when they attempt to repress honest convictions and freeinquiry—when their disapprobation is shown to all who donot support them, and their displeasure incurred by the dif-fusion of intelligence among the people not calculated toIncrease their power and reputation ; then it becomes theduty of the people to decline their oversight, as men un-worthy to rule the Church of God. The rock on which theChurch has split for ages is, that the sovereign power to reg-ulate all ecclesiastica
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