add vast strength and extent to the weak and defective provisions of human institutions, nay, that the stability of government in a great measure depends upon them; it then becomes the duty of that Legislature to promote the propagation of religious truth by those means which shall appear most conducive to the attainment of these important ends; and if, upon a due comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the different modes of propagating such truths, it should appear that this is more likely to be effected by supporting one mode in preference to the rest; it is also the duty of the Legislature to establish that system of religious worship, on the paramount principle of the common good; by which act it becomes an important branch of the Civil Institutions of the State.

The trite, but superficial observation, that every establishment should stand or fall by its own intrinsic merits, betrays a shallow insight into the nature of man, especially of religious man; as it must be obvious to every one who looks beyond the surface of things, that even the most salutary civil privileges conferred on any one class of the community, must necessarily excite the jealousy of that portion i of the excluded part, whose views terminate

in

in themselves. Should the Elective Franchise, e. g. be extended to the utmost limit, short of universal suffrage, a remnant of discontent would still remain, If, even under the Jewish theocracy, it was necessary to erect such strong barriers against the encroachments of heathenism; if Christianity itself, during the life of its divine Author, experienced so much opposition from the prejudices and jealousies of the Jews; what hostility hath not the most perfect human establishment to expect from that diversity of civil and religious sentiment which forms the most ominous feature in the present times? A reference to those unceasing efforts which are daily made to vilify and asperse the National Religion, will suggest the best answer to this interrogatory. Were, indeed, the Establishment assailed by no other weapons than those of veracity and candour, the position would be just; then it certainly ought to stand or fall by its own intrinsic merits; but the reverse being the fact, this, like many other theoretical assertions which have caused so much mischief in the present day, is "speculatively right, but practically "wrong." It is, as Locke observes, "reasoning right from wrong principles." From the very circumstance, therefore, of its being established,

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established, some defence, in addition to its own intrinsic merits, however great, becomes necessary to protect the Established Church against the unremitting and insidious attacks of its numerous enemies; "and if the Legislature can better effect this salutary purpose, by admitting none but its genuine members to offices of trust and emolument, it is cer"tainly at liberty so to do; the disposal of "offices being matter of favour and discretion."

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I shall, therefore, consider admissibility to office solely as a question of constitutional expediency, and not of right, christian charity, or any other principle equally irrelevant to such a political discussion.

Now, in order to estimate that expediency, I shall, in the first place, take a cursory view of the civil and religious Constitution under which we live; of their intimate connexion; with the probable consequences of a dissolution of that connexion; we shall then be enabled to appreciate the value of "what we have to lose."

When the dawn of literature began to enlighten the political horizon, our forefathers discovered their degraded state, and shook off those chains, in which they had been bound for so many ages; and which, notwithstanding

the

the spirited resistance of a few of our monarchs, prior to the Reformation, presents such a gloomy scene of mental degradation and sacerdotal tyranny, as every friend of religious liberty must contemplate with dismay. The period at length arrived, when, the caprice of one of our kings, co-operating with the scandalous practices of the Church of Rome, the efforts of the first Reformers, and other concurring political occurrences on the Continent, it pleased Divine Providence to release this nation from its spiritual bondage, and to found a better order of things on the enlightened principles of Protestantism, and a juster regard to the Rights of Conscience; yet our ancestors did not deem it either wise or prudent entirely to abolish the existing system; but, divesting it of what was unscriptural and superstitious, and substituting what was more unexceptionable, they framed that Ecclesiastical Constitution, which soon attained its present perfection. THE LITURGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, equally remote from Fanaticism and Superstition, contains every thing which a Man, a Christian, and a Briton, ought to pray for, expressed in language so devout and scriptural, as to defy all competition. THE FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT,

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GOVERNMENT, consisting of a triple order of well-educated ministers, corresponding to the civil gradation adopted by the Constitution, is equally calculated to restrain the excess of democratical licentiousness, as the encroachments of arbitrary power; whilst it admits of toleration to all; in fine, it is excellently adapted to produce all those advantages which are proposed by a religious Establishment, and which, under a Constitution like our own, could not be attained by any other means; such is its value as a religious institution.

But the Established Religion becomes still more interesting to us, from that indissoluble connexion with our Civil Institutions which no political alchemy can disunite, Prior to that glorious æra, when our liberties were no longer left to doubtful inferences, from still more doubtful interpretations of the law, but were distinctly defined and secured in express and positive terms; even from the earliest times, much of our jurisprudence had been founded on ecclesiastical considerationss the numerous provisions for the regulation and support of the National Religion, do themselves constitute a considerable portion of our code; the tenure of an immense freehold property, not only of the clergy but

of