who overlook all political administrations, except as they touch sectarian pride, or invade churchman's prerogative? Is he aye to be an outcast from the generous favourers of their country's weal, who have foregone, in a great degree, the noble virtues and Christian graces of the old English patriarchs of church and state; and taken in their private character more of the manners and libertinism of continental revolutionists, having little left of the ancient blood of these islanders?

But if England would make another step in advance, she must look to the strength in which she made her former steps; and if foreign nations would possess the blessings of England, they must look to that era of her history, when her liberty struggled into birth. It was religion that set the work in motion, and religious men bore the heat of the labour. The Puritans and the Covenanters were the fathers of liberty; the Cavaliers and the Politicians would have been its death. So was it also among the Huguenots of France, in whose massacre the star of liberty set to that ill-fated land, and cannot rise again for want of such men as Condé and Coligny. So also in the United Provinces of Holland, and every country in which liberty hath had any seat. Nevertheless, though the living spirit of liberty, regard to the will of God, and resolution to serve him, be not found now as heretofore among them, every religious man must wish well to the present shaking of the nations, as likely to open passages for the light of truth, which the craft of priests

and the power of absolute tyrants have diligently excluded. I pray to heaven constantly, night and morning, that he would raise up in this day men of the ancient mould, who could join in their ancient wedlock these two helps meet for each other, which are in this age divorced-religion and liberty. As it goes at present, a man who cherishes these two affections within his breast hardly knoweth whither to betake himself;-not to the pious, for they have forsworn all interest or regard in civil affairs; not to the schools of politicians, who with almost one consent have cast off the manly virtues and Christian graces of the old English reformers. But, by the spirits of our fathers! I ask again, are their children never to see the reunion of religious and free-born men? Have our hearts waxed narrow that they cannot contain both these noble affections? or, hath God removed his grace from us-from those who consult for freedom, in order to punish their idolatry of liberty, and show into what degradation of partyserving and self-seeking this boasted liberty will bring men, when it is loosed from the fear of God, who is the only patron of equity and good government. But, why, O Lord! dost thou remove thy light from thine own people, the saints of the land? Is it that they may know thou art the God of wisdom no less than of zeal, who requirest the worship of the mind no less than of the heart? Then do thou after thine ancient loving-kindness send forth amongst them a spirit of power and of a sound mind, that they may consult for the public

welfare of this thine ancient realm, and infuse their pure principles into both its civil and religious concerns.

It seems to my mind, likewise, when I compare the productions of these patriarchs of church and state with the irreverent and fiery speculations of modern politicians, and the monotonous, unimaginative writings of modern saints, that the soul of this country hath suffered loss, and become sterile from the disunion of these two spouses, religion and liberty; and that the vigour of political and religious thoughts hath declined away. In the one of which there is no nourishment to a righteous breast, in the other no nourishment to a manly breast; and until harmony between these two be joined again, we shall never enjoy such an offspring of mind as formerly graced the literature of this land, and to this day forms the glory of the nation. When I peruse the "Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," the most powerful, it seems to me, of all compositions, ancient or modern, and over against it set the "Descent of Liberty, a Mask," and such like works of modern reformers-when I read the "Letters for Toleration," or the Treatises on Government of Locke and Sydney, and over against them set the Defences and Apologies of moderns persecuted for conscience' sake (or, they phrase it, for blasphemy's sake), I seem to be conversing with creatures of a different sphere in creation. Nor do I feel the element less altered upon me when I pass from the "Ecclesiastical Polity" to any

modern treatises or eulogies upon the church; or from the "Saint's Rest" to any modern work of practical piety. The grandeur of religious subjects is fallen; the piety of political subjects is altogether deceased. We are mere pigmies in the moral applications of intellect. The discrimination of the age is lead astray or fallen asleep, and maketh more account of the most petty novice or student in art or science, of the interpreter of an Egyptian hieroglyphic, or the discoverer of a new Oasis in the great desert of Zaara, than it would, I verily believe, of the greatest sage or moralist, if there was any chance of such a phenomenon arising, in this physical age.

But to return from this digression upon the unfriendliness between religious and political reformers; we go now into the second inquiry, What influence the constitution delineated above would have, if universally adopted upon the hot and fiery spirits in society, who are ever labouring to set it in a blaze. That it would quicken the lethargic masses into prudent circumspection and spirited action, we consider to be sufficiently manifested both by argument and example. But the timorous part of men might think it would make them self-willed and ungovernable, and therefore it is expedient to show the checks which it puts in against excessive agitation. Now in one sense Christian men are ungovernable, that is they cannot be obliged to obedience against the law of God. Not only are they not passively

obedient, they are resolutely disobedient to every statute which would compromise their allegiance to the Most High. And therefore whoever would govern in defiance of Christian conscience, must expect Christian disobedience. He may carry his measures by force, but it will be to the injury of the best blood in his dominions. He may, punish them, and they will long endure, but lookers on will not be content. He may cut them off, but every one he cuts off disaffects a thousand to his government; and so it never faileth to come to pass, that, in a land generally approving. Christianity, though few heartily embrace it, persecution is the downfal of the persecutor, and the exaltation of the persecuted, even though the persecuted may never lift the sword in selfdefence, but go, as their Master did, like sheep to the slaughter. Christians, therefore, by their resolution to die sooner than yield to unchristian laws, do never fail, by a kind of secondary influence, by the reaction of their hardships upon the standers by, to form a nucleus round which every generous and virtuous and patriotic sentiment is sure to rally. They are like the standard, which though it fight not, rallies those that do. And the consequence is that, if they can keep a head, and are not exterminated by force, as they have been in Japan, or burnt out by fiery inquisition, as in Spain, or by the arts of the world effeminated, as they have been elsewhere; if they can keep a vigour, they force by degrees the spirit of laws and of government to bend in the