of the laity, depends upon this foundation, which, if weakened, would render all other freehold property somewhat less secure, But the union which subsists between our Religious Institutions and the Legislative Branch of the Constitution, is of the highest importance; it is, indeed, the key-stone which holds the whole fabric together; an union, which did not, as is often insidiously insinuated, originate in a principle of favouritism or invidious exclusion: No! it resulted from a just and politic regard to the freedom and happiness of all. Neither was it the offspring of speculative theory, but of the actual oppression of our forefathers, who, as they spurned from them the chains of fanaticism and superstition, wisely bound up, by this precautionary system, those hands by which they had been enslaved. So deeply were they impressed with horror at the regollection of the past, and with apprehension for the future, that they resolved to restrain every person in the realm, from the sovereign on the throne down to the meanest of the people, from again subjecting us to this ignominious yoke.

The grand source of those persecutions which the page of history reddens with narrating, was that inextinguishable lust of dominion,

dominion, which springs as naturally from the principles of the Church of Rome, as fruit from a tree. At the ever to be venerated period of THE REFORMATION, this nation was delivered from her gloomy sway; then,

the usurped power of the Pope was for ever "routed and destroyed, all his connexions with "this island were cut off; the Crown was "restored to its Supremacy over Spiritual Men "and Causes, which it enjoyed in the time of our Saxon Ancestors, and the Patronage of

Bishoprics was once more vested in THE "KING." BY THE ACT OF SUPREMACY, our ancestors laid the axe to the root of that baleful tree, they blotted out from the constitutional code, that dangerous and preposterous political anomaly, A FOREIGN IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO; and, with a resolution and independence becoming Britons, declared, that "No Foreign Prince, Prelate, "State, or POTENTATE, hath, or ought to have,

any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Pre"eminence, or Authority, ecclesiastical or

spiritual, within this Realm;" which law constitutes the foundation of our present PROTESTANT CONSTITUTION. During the short reign of Edward the Sixth, who was truly a nursing father to the Church, the

good

good cause appeared to flourish; but in a few years, notwithstanding the fair professions of Mary, the flames of persecution broke out again, with increased fury; in the reign of Elizabeth they were nearly extinguished; but in that of her successor, James the First, somewhat of the old leaven made its appearance in the JURE DIVINO doctrines of that day; which high notion of Divine Right, conspiring with, or perhaps producing corresponding notions of Civil Authority in Charles the First, was the means of enabling a set of hypocritical pretenders to religion, to demolish the Church, overturn the Civil Constitution, and bring that well-intentioned but mistaken Monarch to the block.

The reformers of that day were now on tiptoe for the era of civil and religious regeneration, for unbounded toleration, and perfect equality; but, behold! to their utter amazement, a Light (not from above) suddenly shone upon Oliver, by which he clearly discerned, that as all power was given to his elect, it would be an abomination to divide it with publicans and sinners. So low did his mean and contracted soul descend, as to subject any person to a year's imprisonment for using a common-prayer book, not only in a

place

place of public worship, but also in a private family. Such was the toleration which the Church of England experienced from an opposite description of her enemies,-the Spiritual Levellers of that day. But the nation soon grew tired of this tragi-comic state of things; and to guard against a recurfence of such a grotesque and tyrannical exercise of spiritual licentiousness, soon after "THE RESTORATION of Charles the Second," THE CORPORATION and TEST ACTS were passed, by which, persons of these fanatical principles were excluded from situations, in which they might be tempted to renew their old practices. The nation had now run into the opposite extreme, and there seemed to be less occasion than ever for those strong laws which had been enacted against Popery; but the fallacy of so hasty a conclusion soon became evident; on the Accession of James the Second, it appeared that the Papal Lion was not dead, but had been sleeping. This bigotted and faithless monarch commenced his reign by A DECLARATION OF INDUL"GENCE," in which he professes, that all restraints upon religion were contrary to the rights of conscience; that they deprived him of the united services of all the classes of his

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subjects,

subjects, &c. much in the present strain; but the very next year, attempting to fill the highest offices of the state exclusively with his catholic creatures, for this violation of the fundamental principles of the Protestant Constitution, hé forfeited the crown of three kingdoms.

The people, so often abused by the bad faith of Popish Monarchs, found it high time to take stronger measures, for the security of their Religious Liberties; they accordingly présented to his successors the famous "BILL "OF RIGHTS," containing the express conditions on which they were to reign over them; and the statute which confirms that bill, stipulates, that the Kings and Queens of England shall declare the principal Tenets of the Church of Rome to be superstitious and idolatrous. By "THE ACT OF SETTLEMENT," the crown is actually forfeited, and the subject released from his allegiance, should the Sovereign be at any time reconciled to the See of Rome. By the ACT of UNION of Scotland with England, he engages to preserve THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, and WALES. At the august ceremony of THE CORONATION, the substance of these constitutional engagements to maintain the Established

Religion