such little tracts as those we send your Lordship. The arguments were new to us & the whole subject was treated in a different way from anything we had seen before. We tried to meet them. We examined, re-examined, read, and prayed over them, all our professions were against them, we had every reason almost to wish them untrue, few, if any, to believe them true, yet we are obliged to confess they have triumphed over every opposition, we have come out of the examination convinced of the truth of views the reception of which must sunder us from past & present associations & place us among new & untried ones. We must glance briefly at the ground over which these arguments lead us: the first is the unity of the Body of Christ, God’s Word declares this unity to be truly and entirely spiritual indeed, & yet to be expressed in the outward walk. Our Lord’s prayer alone (John 17) should convince anyone of this; moreover the Apostle’s warning against schism & separation have here evidently their appropriate application. It is the “one body” embracing every true believer & only every true believer in Christ Jesus, that we are warned not to divide. It is the “assembling of ourselves together” that we are warned not to forsake. Moreover to preserve this external unity we are to put no stumbling block in our brother’s way; to receive him that is weak in the faith but not to doubtful disputations; & the solemn warning of the Apostle is appended to the whole, “If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy, for the Temple