Christ for his fellow prisoner, who doth gladde
With heavenly sunbeams, goales that are most sad.'


(Written by William Prynne, on his Prison wall, in the Tower.)

The men who arraign their fellows before any standard of orthodoxy,
or claim the right of dictating forms of belief or modes of worship
under pains or penalties, are guilty of assuming the prerogative
of the Most High, and of claiming, for their frail opinions,
infallibility. Such are guilty of high treason against the Majesty
of heaven--and all their machinations have a direct tendency to
destroy human happiness--the wealth of the nation, and that universal
good-will among men which the gospel is intended to establish. Such
men present to us the various features of antichrist, the dread
enemy of mankind.

The duty of every intelligent creature is to watch the operations
of nature, that he may be led to just perceptions of the greatness
of the Creator, and the goodness of his immutable laws. Soon he
finds his perceptions dim, and is conscious of evil propensities,
which baffle all his efforts at sinless perfection. He finds nothing
in nature to solve the solemn inquiry how sin is to be pardoned,
and evil thoughts and habits to be rooted out. The convinced sinner
then feels the necessity of a direct revelation from God; and in
the Bible alone he finds that astounding declaration, which leaves
all human philosophy at an immeasurable distance--'Ye must be
born again.' God only can effect the wondrous change--man, priest,
prophet, or magi, can do him no good--his terror-stricken conscience
drives him to his Creator, and faith in the Redeemer causes