established. 2. The character and authority of certain officers appointed in it. 3. The imposition of a stated form of prayer called the Liturgy, and many exceptionable things contained therein. 4. The pretended right of enjoining unscriptural ceremonies. 5. The terms on which ministers are admitted into their office. 6. The want of liberty in the people to choose their own ministers; and, 7. The corrupt state of its discipline. The author of the Catechism (just deceased), says in the preface of the last edi tion, that Bishop Horseley declared, that it inculcates no one principle of the Christian religion, or of any religion under the sun;" but the author replies, "that it strongly inculcates, among other principles of Christianity, peaceableness, loyalty to the king, subjection to government, obedience to the laws, and charity." It is with things, and not with persons, that Christians have to do in religious matters; and dissent may be consistent with an enlightened and diffusive liberality.

66

Lord Sidmouth's Bill, designed to amend the Toleration Act, was on May the 21st, 1811, thrown out of the House of Lords-a happy circumstance, for had it passed into a law, Dissenting Ministers must have been at the mercy of a Quarter Sessions to determine on their fitness to teach and to discharge the duties of the Christian Ministry. The bill was entitled, An Act to explain and render more effectual certain Acts of the first Year of the Reign of K.

William and Q. Mary, so far as the same relate to Protestant Dissenting Ministers; but it was deemed a virtual repeal of the whole toleration system. Indeed this interference with the religious liberties of the Protestant Dissenters was felt like an electrical shock throughout the whole circle of the body it was meant to affect. The THREE Denominations came forward with one heart and with one soul-having met-they resolved-they petitioned-they triumphed!!-Protestant Dissenter and Friend to Religious Liberty were synonymous terms, indeed the only appellations by which they were designated on the occasion.*

Nor should we omit to state, that the Unitarian Dissenters have been just relieved from certain penalties attaching to those denying the doctrine of the Trinity. These statutes are abolished, and it is hoped, for the honour of religion, of human nature and of the country, that ALL penal statutes in matters of religion will soon be annihilated. See the statute of repeal at the close of A Sketch of the History and

See a SERMON entitled Religious Liberty the Offspring of Christianity, preached at Worship Street, Tuesday, June the 4th, 1811, before the Annual Assembly of the General Baptists, to which are subjoined the Schedules of Lord Sidmouth's Bill, together with the Resolutions both of the General Body of Dissenting Ministers in and about the Cities of London and Westminster, and of the Deputies for protecting the Civil Rights of the Protestant Dissenters-by J. Evans.

Proceedings of the Deputies appointed to protect the Civil Rights of the Protestant Dissenters, to which is annexed a Summary of the Laws affecting Protestant Dissenters. The abolition of the above statute ap. pears to have met the approbation, not only of the bench of bishops, but also of every churchman of good sense and piety. And it is with no less pleasure recorded, that the Protestant Dissenters, even of the most rigid description, rejoice in this signal instance of a progressive advance towards ENTIRE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. *

KIRK OF SCOTLAND.†

THE members of the Kirk of Scotland are, strictly speaking, the only Presbyterians in Great Britain. Their mode of ecclesiastical government was brought thither from Geneva by JOHN KNOX, the celebrated

'The lover of Christian freedom will read with pleasure the two Discourses preached and printed by Messrs. Belsham and Kentish on this memorable occasion. Mr. B. gives a succinct epitome of the sufferings of Unitarians in former ages, and points out the superior blessings enjoyed by their grateful posterity.

†The word Kirk, signifying church, is of Saxon original, though some consider it as a contraction of two Greek words, up anos, the House of God, and is still used in Scotland.

Scotch Reformer, who has been styled the apostle of Scotland, for the same reason that Luther was called the apostle of Germany.

Contrary to the Episcopalians, THE PRESBYTERIANS maintain that the church should be governed by Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies. The title Presbyterian comes from the Greek word IIpar Suregos, which signifies senior or elder. In the Kirk of Scotland there are fifteen synods and sixty nine presbyteries. Their articles are Calvinistic, and their GENERAL ASSEMBLY is held annually in the Scotch metropolis. In 1581 the Presbytery of Edinburgh was erected-the first in Scotland; but those courts called Presbyteries were not generally agreed to by the king till 1556, nor ratified by act of parliament until 1592, when Presbyterianism became the establishment of Scotland. At the revolution, 1688, the Westminster Confession of Faith was received as the standard of the national faith, ordaining that "no person be admitted or continued hereafter to be a minister or preacher within this church, unless that he subscribe to this confession of faith, declaring the same to be the confession of his faith." And by the act of union, 1707, the same is required of all "professors, principals, regents, masters, and others bearing office" in any of the four universities of Scotland. In the church of Scotland there are two parties, the one for confirming and extending the rights of patronage, the other for ex

tending the influence and securing the consent of the people in the settlement of ministers. The former party had for a long period Dr. William Robertson, the celebrated historian, at their head; they designated themselves the moderate men, strenuously opposing what they called the wildness of orthodoxy, the madness of fanaticism, and the frenzy of the people! Dr. Witherspoon was at that time the leader of the other party, which he keenly satirizes in his Ecclesiastical Characteristics, or the Arcana of Church Policy, being an humble attempt to open the Mystery of Moderation, wherein is shewn a Plain and easy Way of attaining to the Character of a Moderate Man, at present in repute in the Church of Scotland. The kirk has no liturgy, no altar, no instrumental music; and, with respect to the latter, violent, as well as effective, was the opposition to a late proposal of its introduction at Glasgow. The sacrament which, by law, should be administered four times, but is more generally administered only once or twice a-year, is conducted with great solemnity. The people are prepared for the ordinance by a fast on some day of the preceding week, and by a sermon on Saturday, whilst they meet again on Monday morning for public thanksgiving. Logan's Sermons will furnish the reader with the form which accompanies the administration. It is a singular circumstance, that this church has no kind of ceremony in the interment of the dead; the friends