pleased to leave him thus absolutely, as it were, in his own hands. If he has not, all reasoning upon the matter is at an end; and before men suffer themselves to be governed by a specious dogma, which is calculated to impose, they should examine, whether they have fairly measured their application of it by the standard set up for that purpose in the word of God. In other words, whether they have honestly made use of all means to inform their judgment, before they adopt it as their rule of conduct. If they have not, their sincerity, merely as such, will furnish no plea in their favour. They will be condemned, not because they are sincere, but because they have neglected those means of information, which would have directed their sincerity to its proper object. › In consequence of which neglect, they may be in the condition of numberless assertors of the rights of conscience, that have appeared in all ages of the world; who, in the strenuous exertion of their zeal, thought they were doing God service, at the time they were engaged in the most direct opposition to his will; and sacrificing to idols which their own corrupt nature had set up, under the different shapes of pride, prejudice, and worlilly interest.

(bensTHE subject of TOLERATION has been open to much misconception.

The Act upon which it is founded should be seen in a civil, not in a religious point of view; for it concerns men as members of a civil society, rather than in any other character. The passing this Act was a seasonable exertion of political wisdom, for the purpose of securing the government of this country at a very critical period, upon the broadest foundation. And the Act itself may with more propriety be called an Act of Suspension, than of Toleration; the purpose of it being to secure Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England, on certain conditions, from the penalties to which they had been made subject by former statutes. That this was the idea which the legislators had before them at the time, may be fairly concluded, from the word Toleration not being once mentioned through the whole statute; and from the Act of Uniformity being at the same time suffered to remain unrepealed.

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To form a correct judgment, then, upon this subject, it may be proper, to consider every law as composed of two distinct parts, the preceptive, that which binds the law upon the consciences and the coercive, that which enforces the obligation of it upon the practice. Now the coercive, part of any law, or the penal sanction annexed to it, is only for the necessary purpose of moving or constraining men to pay that obedience to the law, which is res quired of them. But the obligation upon the con science is not derived from the penalty designed to secure it, but from the authority of the lawgivers who, by virtue of that authority, had a right to exact obedience to all his just demands. A sust pension, therefore, of the penal sanction, though, in the present corrupt state of man, it render the law less effectual, does not in any wise invalidate the law itself, which remains just what it was before the sanction was annexed to it; binding upon party, or otherwise, according to the just tenor of the law in question, and the authority of the law maker, independent of every other consideration. For it is not reasonable to suppose, that the res moval of the penalty can take away from the law that obligation which it derives from a different cause out Was tolbust of

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The Apostle seems to have had this idea, before him in the following legal comment addressed to his disciples, "Wherefore," says he, you must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake:"* not for fear of the penalty, but from a sense of the obligation which the law binds

upon the conscience, motive which ought to secure the obedience of ever every Christian. Ji Jodie taThe sanction annexed, then, to any law, proves nothings as to the obligation of the law itself upon the conscience, but it proves, that in consequence of man not being in that perfect condition in which he ought to be, other motives, besides those derived from the reasonableness and equity of the command, are become necessary to secure his obedience. For every law stands upon the ground of its own merits; if good in itself, and enacted by proper authority, whether the penalties designed to secure its operation be enforced or not, its obligation upon the conscience remains the same. Josya

Let us now consider what the Act of Toleration, as it is commonly called, has done in the case before uslovni pare

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By the Act of Uniformity, every person is required to conform to the mode of worship established in this country. The enforcement penalties upon this subject, a subsequent Act has, under certain circumstances, suspended; whilst, at the same time, the Act itself, the operation of which those penalties were meant to secure, is suffered to remain in being. May we not conclude from hence, that the legislators saw no reason to alter their opinion with respect to the Act of Uni

formity itself, although, upon consideration, the thought proper, in particular cases, to leave it to produce its effect upon the mind, unassisted by its appointed sanction. 1st gol Jou 9762 9095 9564) The title of Toleration Act, therefore, which use has now familiarized to the ear, seems to be

derived rather from the meaning (which popular interpretation has affixed to the Act in question,d than from the real intention of the Act itself. b For an exemption from penalties, which the policy of former times had inflicted upon certain irregular practices, cannot be considered so much a tolera.c tions of those practices,bas an acknowledgment, on the part of Government, that religious opinions, so long as they do not interfere with whatois deemed to be the welfare of the state, are no longer considered objects for temporal coercion.qis

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But in this case, as in some others, in which the prejudices and passions of mankind are deeply en gaged, the conclusion has been carried beyond the premises; and the legislature has been understood to say more than was ever meant to be said upon this subject; the setting free from legal restraint certain religious distinctions and practices having been considered, by many, to amount to a justifis cation, or even establishment, of them. Whereas the Act of Toleration, as it is called, tolerates nóthing; if by toleration is to be understood a justification of practices, against which temporal penal! ties had been heretofore denounced. A suspension of those penalties is all that it pretends to. But a suspension of penalties, whilst the law to which they have been annexed continues unrepealed, (as it has been already observed) does not lessen the obligation of that law, though it may destroy its effect. Ps of barerib non dude capthangg ive.

But upon the supposition that the Act of Tole ration did more than it does that it not only suspended the penalties by which a conformity to the