Excerpt from A Reproof of the American Church It is common to personify the Church, land to speak of her as of some spotless celestial being and vet she, in fact, consists of her clerical and lay members, each one of whom must personally an swer at the bar of Christ for his participation in every sin commit ted by the Church. Surely, it would be more becoming Christian men to inquire how far they are individually guilty of the offences charged upon them by Bishop Wilberforce, than to endeavor to stifle investigation, by burying in oblivion the faithful and Christian re buke of their English brother. Religious establishments tend to render the clergy obsequious to the civil ruler, and our voluntary system tempts them to do homage to the most capricious and irresponsible of all tyrants, the will of the multitude. Let us see what true and faithful allegiance our Primitive and Apostolic Church has borne to this American despot. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.