themselves, and taken out of the liturgies of the most Holy Fathers, which is so very true, that some of the popes would have approved of that form of Holy Offices which we use, would we but acknowlege his authority "The truth of this agreement between the two churches has been so very obvious to some great men of the Roman communion, that they have applauded those of the English clergy, who wrote against Dissenters, as excellent defenders of the Catholic cause47.'

'The clergy of the church of England, it is true,' (I am here quoting from a member of that church, the author of the Confessional,) have constantly disclaimed all connexion with popery, or any design or disposition to promote that cause; which however is but an equivocal proof of a different spirit, and none at all that the tendency of their doctrines doth not bend towards popery.' The archdeacon of Cleveland also elsewhere asserts, that the principles of Ap. Laud and his confederates have been espoused and pursued by their successors, in such sort, as to give more than a suspicion to some competent observers, that the church of England has been and still is, though by degrees imperceptible to vulgar eyes, edging back once more towards popery. And certainly, whatever change the

46 Davenant. Determ. 27.

47 P. 46, 59. Thus says he, 'Reynolds, the jesuit, affirms, that archp. Whitgift against Cartwright has defended the Catholic cause; and, in his writings against Whitaker, makes great use of Whitgift's book. Scultingius and Stapleton give the same character both of the writings of Whitgift, and his successor Bancroft against the Puritans.-And Hooker, for the service he did the church of Rome, in his writings for the worship and discipline of the church of England, has had the praises of the Ra manists.'

48 Confessional, p. 324, 328. In the last of these pages, the author of this justly admired work, speaking of a pamphlet, entitled, a Short and True Account of the several Advances the Church of England hath made towards Rome, which was published in 1680, and written by Du Moulin, some time Professor of History at Oxford, says, the instances here alleged 'might be continued even to the present times, by the addition of exam ples still more striking than those of Du. Moulin.'

demolition of the Gallic hierarchy may have produced in the sentiments of the English prelates and clergy, and whatever effect it may be thought to have had in checking a liberal spirit, to the church of Rome at least the alteration has not in this country been unfavorable. Viewing the English hierarchy as a daughter of the church of Rome, some have heretofore been disposed to charge her with ingratitude; because, though she treads in the steps of her parent-hierarchy, and is decked with many of the same ornaments, though from her she derives her very existence, and betrays in her features a strong family-likeness, she has nevertheless been accustomed not only to disown all connexion with her, but unceasingly to load her with the bitterest and most opprobrious language. At length, however, the church of England is disposed to wipe off this reproach. At length the relationship between the two churches is acknowleged by both parties; they are declared to have a common cause; and the parent-church, now bending under the weight of years, is looked up to with respect by her rebellious daughter, and her sufferings are contemplated with unfeigned sorrow.

Is it not plain,' asks the author of an Essay on the Kingdom of Christ, that a National church is inimical to the spirit of our Lord's declaration, MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD? Does not that comprehensive and important saying compel us to view the church and the world in a contrasted point of light? And does not the idea of a national church lead us to confound them?The church of England, indeed, is manifestly a secular kingdom. For it is established by human laws, and acknowleges a political head; nor is it esteemed material whether that head be male or female. It is a creature of the state, supported by the state, incorporated with the state, and governed by a code of laws confirmed by the state; a code, very different from the sacred canons of the New Testament; those being quite foreign to its constitution. Its principal officers are appointed by the

crown; and, in virtue of ecclesiastical station, are lords of parliament.'

The new Oeconomy, being intended for all nations and all succeeding ages, is equally fitted for the rich and the poor; nor does it make any distinction, in regard to places, where its worship should be performed. To think of doing honor to Christianity, by erecting pompous places of worship, by consecrating those places, and by adorning ministers with showy vestments,' is highly absurd. Let the nobles and judges of the land, when acting agreeably to their different characters, appear in robes of state and in robes of magistracy; as those things belong to the kingdoms of this world. But confine them there, and by no means think of decorating the kingdom, or of promoting the cause, of Christ, by any thing similar. Were any man to lacker gold, and paint the diamond, to increase their lustre, he would certainly be considered as insane. Yet the conduct of those persons is more absurd, who borrow the trappings of secular kingdoms, to adorn the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ. As to places of worship,-to lay the first stone of such an edifice with solemn formalities, is Jewish to dedicate it, when completed, to any particular saint, is manifestly superstitious. If secular grandeur, however, must needs attend the religion of him who was born in a stable, and lived in poverty; who received the acclamations of royalty, when riding upon an ass, and quickly after expired on a cross; if, I say, it must appear in the worship of any who pretend to follow the fishermen of Galilee, those prime-ministers in the Messiah's kingdom, let it be confined to such as avow themselves members of a national establishment. Let those monopolise the splendor in question who consider the church and the state as of equal dimensions; who acknowlege a visible head of political royalty; and who must search, not the New Testament, but a code of canons and constitutions larger than the whole Bible", if they would know on what 49 Referring to Gibson's Codex? I f

VOL. I.

foundations their ecclesiastical fabric stands, and by what laws it is governed. The national form of the Jewish church being their model, and a temporal monarch being their head, why should not they have magnificent cathedrals, and consecrate them like Jewish temples? As the head of the English church is adorned with royal robes; as the principal officers in it are appointed by him, and are lords in the legislature; and as it is established by laws of the state; who shall forbid the various orders of its ministers being adorned with sounding titles and with pompous canonicals? There is no reason to wonder, that, in such a constitution and such a polity, almost every thing should wear a secular appearances."

The sordid system of rendering religion an amusement to the senses, rather than a corrective of the heart, and a guide to the understanding, the Protestant churches have not all carried to an equally criminal extent. But an excess of intolerance they have all exhibited. The acts of persecution, with which they, as well as the Romish hierarchies, are chargeable, are not characterised by a small degree of enormity, nor confined to a small number of instances. To descend to particulars would be foreign to the design of the present work. One extract, connected with this subject, shall, however, be introduced. It is from a treatise by Mr. Taylor of Portsmouth. Bucer scrupled not to declare in the pulpit, that Michael Servetus deserved to have his entrails pulled out, and be torn in pieces: and Farrel, in a letter to Calvin,' speaking of Servetus, says, "the judges must be very cruel, and perfect enemies to Christ, if they are not affected with the horrid blasphemies with which that pernicious heretic attacks the divine Majesty, and endeavors to overthrow the gospel, and to corrupt all churches. But I hope those that are commended for inflicting a just punishment upon thieves

50 Ess. on the Kingdom of Chr. by Abraham Booth, 1788, p. 33, 34, 65, 70, 72.

and sacrilegious persons, will do their duty in this case, by taking off a man, who has so long and obstinately persisted in his heresy."-Lubenjecius tells us, that this Farrel not only determined that Servetus should be cut off, but the extirpation of all heretics; which gave Grotius occasion to say, that the spirit of Antichrist reigned. not only at the Tiber, but also at the lake of Geneva. Both Calvin, and dreaming Beza, as Sir Isaac Newton calls him, wrote in defence of punishing heretics by the civil magistrate. Each of these reformers, says' Lubenjecius, taking a dart out of the quiver of the church of Rome and her adherents, to thrust it with greater fury into the sides of the heretics of their own makings'.'

It is, indeed, a strong argument against the existence of any hierarchies, that they not unfrequently debase the character of those who belong to them; and, whether they are in pursuit or in possession of eminent ecclesiastical honors, infuse into their minds an antichristian spirit of persecution and bigotry, and render them the determined enemies of Civil Liberty and the interests of mankind. Many a priest, in proportion to the elevation of rank to which he has attained, has thought himself bound zealously to oppose Political Freedom, together with the Freedom of Inquiry, and the Freedom of Religious Worship. I need not go far in order to find persons, whose conduct and whose writings have illustrated this position; I need not go beyond the circle of writers, whom I have had occasion to cite most frequently in the present work: I need not select any other person as illustrative of my assertion, than the late bishop of Bristol.

The remainder of the chapter may be viewed in the light of a digression. But in a work, where there is so great a sameness of subject, and where so much dry discussion must be unavoidably introduced, a few digressions may probably not be unseasonable, should they have a ten

51 Farther Thoughts on the Nature of the Grand Apostacy, p. 75,