perfection of civil government. We have a bafis still to work and improve upon, formed of the venerable materials of millennial experience, which time and circumftances have cemented, fettled, and incorporated into a body of the most durable folidity. A bafis widely different from those compofed of the crumbling plaifter of Paris, upon which the modern ftate archi tects have been unable to erect with stability the flightest temporary superstructure.

The alliance which our conftitution has inftituted between church and ftate has obliged me to enter further into the topic of religion, than a mere differtation upon the civil conftitution of a country might feem to require. I am aware of the extreme difficulty of treating religious fubjects in a manner fatisfactory to all perfons. It has neither been my province nor my intention to discuss the merits of any religious perfuafion whatever; and if any reflection or obfervation have escaped me, that can difplease or offend the theologians of any religious

I am fenfible, that in quoting the authorities of fome of our conftitutional and legal writers, I have fometimes adopted phrases, which may not ftand the fevere ordeal of theological precifion : for inftance, it is ufually faid, that the king of England appoints bishops, &c. now neither in legal, conftitutional, nor theological accuracy, is this word appoint proper; because it is not confonant with the fact. For if by the word appoint we are to understand the gift or collation of real spiritual power or jurifdiction, which the act of confecration gives not, and which confits in the power of commanding in spiritual matters under pain of fin, spiritually

cenfuring

religious fociety, I truft in the fpirit of that christian meeknefs, to which they all lay claim, that the unintended offence will be forgiven. But if in tracing and difcuffing the principles of civil government, I have endeavoured to caution my countrymen against the effects of certain political doctrines, which have already proved fundamentally injurious to our constitution, I have done it from the conviction, that as the English conftitution is not repugnant to the faith of a true chriftian, fo principles fubverfive of this conftitution cannot have been revealed by the divine author of that faith. I no more attribute thefe turbulent and anarchical principles to the doctrines and faith of any fociety

of

cenfuring and excommunicating, &c. it is evident, that the law vefts no fuch prerogative, right, or power in the crown. For upon the avoidance of a bishoprick, by ftatute 25 H. VII. c. 20. the king (Bl. vol. i. p. 379) fends to the dean and chapter his ufual licence to proceed to election, called the congè d'elire, which was the conftant ufage for many centuries before the reformation; and this congè d'elire is accompanied with a letter miflive from the king, containing the name of the perfon,whom he would have them elect; and if the dean and chapter delay their election above twelve days, the nomination fhall devolve to the king, who may by letters patent appoint fuch perfon, as he pleases. This election or nomination, if it be of a bishop, must be fignified by the king's letters patent to the archbishop of the province; if it be of an archbishop to the other archbishop and tvo bishops, or to four bithops, requiring them to confirm, inveft, and confecrate the perfon fo elected." This confirmation, inveftiture, and confecration are the acts, bywhich the contitution fuppofes the real spiritual jurifdiction to be conferred upon the bithop. Before the reformation this confirmation and inveftiture were made by the bishop of Rome, as the Roman catholics held him to be the fpiritual fupreme head of their church, and from him deduced the gradations and regularity of their hierarchy. But though the nation have renounced that religion, and have ansferred to their king whatever part of the headship of the civit eftablishment

of chriftians, than I lay to their charge the maxims and practices of robbers and pirates.

To prove, that any human inftitution has attained its ne plus ultra of perfection is to produce internal evidence of a radical deficiency or vice in the fyftem; and to prove a continued progrefs in the melioration or improvement of a system is conclufive evidence, that the ground-work of the fuperftructure is in its nature firm and permanent. I have endeavoured

trace and mark the advances, which our conftitution has been gradually making fince its first institution towards the perfection of civil

eftablishment of religion they formerly allowed to the pope, yet it is evident beyond cavil or doubt, that they neither attempted nor intended to inveft, nor did they by law invest the king with a power of collating spiritual jurifdiction; for they exprefsly direct the bifhop to apply to the archbishop or other bishops for that, which was not in its nature conferable by the laity; for though the law fubjects the archbishop and bishops to the feverett penalties and forfeitures, if after fuch election or nomination they refufe to confirm and inveft the person elected or nominated, yet it authorizes not the king or any other perfons to confirm and inveft, or to grant or collate the real fpiritual jurifdiction, nor does it fay or fuppofe, that the perfon elected or nominated becomes a real fpiritual paftor of Christ's church without fuch confirmation or inveftiture. When the bishop has been elected or nominated, and confirmed and invested, he then is to fue to the king for his temporalities, which as appendages of the civil eftablishment of religion were holden by our Roman catholic ancestors, as well as by the nation at this day, to be at the difpofal and under the controul of the state, and not of the fupreme or other fpiritual minifters of the church of Chrift; for in the year 1350 (25 Ed. 111.) though they then did and for many centuries afterwards, continued to acknowledge the spiritual fupremacy of the pope, they complained, that he affumed a right to give and grant church be.nefices to aliens and denizens, as if he had been patron and advowee of the faid dignities and benefices, as he was not of right by the law of England.

liberty; and in this progrefs do we find the fureft earneft of future improvements, as the exigencies of times and circumftances fhall require them.

To the bleffings of our happy conftitution do we at this moment owe the exalted fituation we hold amidst surrounding nations envying, diftracted, and diftreft. Who then but an avowed enemy will attempt to force or feduce us from the fure hold of fuch an unparalleled tranfcendency? The continuance alone of the means, by which we have attained the glory can enfure it to our posterity. Let every true Englishman therefore join in the patriotic wish for the conftitution,

ESTO PERPETUA.

Alliance between church and ftate, 271. Bracton, when and why he wrote, 308.