g incorporated by civil government.
That the government of the Church ought not to be blended (vereinbart)
with the State, is a tenet of the Augustan Confession, amply supported
by the Scriptures. See 28th Article. Our Lord declared that His kingdom
was not of this world. John 18, 36. That the Church ought not to be
blended with the State is also according to the Constitution of the
United States, whose spirit and design is to secure to every person full
liberty with respect to spiritual matters. The kingdom of Christ admits
of no bondage, for 'it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost,' Rom. 14,17; 'and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty,' 2 Cor. 3, 17. But when the Church is identified with the
State, it is also fettered by human traditions, aspiring priests obtain
the power to tyrannize men's consciences. However, an ecclesiastical
body may be incorporated by civil authority, and yet not be the
established Church of the nation; and so far as I am acquainted with our
civil constitutions there is nothing contained in them to prohibit a
legislative body from incorporating any society. But when a Church is
incorporated, _it approximates to a State coalition_. The Church, by an
act of incorporation, if I am not greatly misinformed, would have power
to enact laws and regulations binding upon all their members, and could
recover by a civil suit at law any property, or its value, bequeathed to
them. Thus empowered, could they not also borrow money upon the credit
of their whole community for the establishment of any institution? An
incorporated Church may not only preserve their funds, but they may also
lend out their money on usury, and obtain a vast increase. The aspiring
priests of such a body, knowing that the wealth of the Church is their
interest, they invent many schemes to enlarge the so-called treasury of
God, lest it should ever get exhausted. They fetter the conscience of
some persons, by telling them that they ought to promote the cause of
God, by casting their donations into the sacred treasury, so that they
yield to their request, whilst they denounce those who refuse to comply
with their importunities as foes to Christ and His holy Gospel. They
contrive to obtain testamentary devices to the injury (in many cases) of
widows and orphans; they condescend to flatter the female sex until they
have begged all that they are able to bestow. Thus by the
instrumentality of those clerical begga