ferent from the
condition of society in Great Britain, where our Testimony was first
emitted, yet the corruptions of human nature, embodied in the
combinations of society, are not less visible in this than in other
lands, nor less hostile to the supreme authority of the Lord and his
Anointed. "The beast and the false prophet" continue to be the objects
of popular devotion: Rev. xix, 20.

_Cincinnati_, Nov. 12th, 1850.

SUPPLEMENT TO PART III,

Containing an application of the principles of our Covenanted Testimony
to the existing condition of society in these United States.

The controversy which arose between the Associate and Reformed churches,
on the doctrine of civil magistracy, was the occasion of greater
divergency between them, on collateral subjects. From false principles,
consistent reasoning must produce erroneous conclusions. Assuming that
the Son of God, as Mediator, has nothing to do with the concerns of
God's moral government beyond the precincts of the visible church, it
would follow, that church members, as citizens of the "kingdoms of this
world," neither owe him allegiance nor are bound to thank him for
"common benefits." The assumption is, however, obviously erroneous,
because, as Mediator, he is "head over all things to the church," Eph.
i, 22, consequently, all people, nations and languages, are bound to
obey and serve him, in this office capacity, and to thank him for his
mercies.

While this controversy was keenly managed by the respective parties in
the British isles, the Lord Christ interposed between the disputants, as
it were, to decide the chief point in debate. By the rise of the British
colonies west of the Atlantic, against the parent country, and their
successful struggle to gain a national independence, a clear commentary
was furnished on the long-contested principle, that, in some cases, it
is lawful to resist existing civil powers. Seceders, forgetting, for the
time, their favorite theory, joined their fellow colonists in casting
off the yoke of British rule. Those who vehemently opposed Reformed
Presbyterians, for disowning the British government, joined cheerfully
in its overthrow. How fickle and inconsistent is man! During
the revolutionary struggle might be witnessed the singular
spectacle--humbling to the pride of human reason, revolting to the
sensibilities of the exercised Christian--brethren of the same
communion, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, pleading with t