his religion; for as it is by the particular or dination of Almighty God, that society is neceffary for man, and fociety cannot fubfift without government; and as Almighty God left the particular form of goverment to the' option of each community, and has in the most express manner enjoined and commanded the individuals of every community to fubmit to, and obey that government, which in exercife of the liberty, which he had granted them, they have formed for themselves, it is evident, that the community is fully warranted in judging, that no action, which tends to disturb or fubvert the end or preservation of the government, can have been directed or enjoined by that deity, whose juftice and confiftency are equal with all his other infinite perfections. These false pretences or calls of confcience to disapprove, refift, or oppose the religion sanctioned or established by the state, are more pointedly reprobated by the learned divine, whom I have so often quoted. *« *« Á pretence confcience for oppofing the right of the magiftrate (or fupreme fovereign power) to establish any religion at all, cannot be supported by the plea of a fpecial mission from

• Rogers's Vindication, p. 149, 150.

H 2

God;

God; because a doctrine fo abfurd and deftructive to human fociety, reafon cannot admit to be from God: and he, who pretends to come from God with such a message, brings with him fuch an internal disproof of his miffion, as would overrule any outward proofs of it; and he may as well pretend a revelation, requiring him to tell us, there is no God."

Every man is prefumed to be affected towards his religion, in proportion as he thinks, and feels, that it is the pure effect of his own voluntary choice*. From hence arife the love and reverence, which the majority of the English nation bear to their church; and from hence alfo is redoubled the obligation upon all diffenters from that church, to submit unto, because they are fuppofed to join and concur in all the acts of the legislature, by which the church receives the civil fanc

The confciences tion of the ftate. Nor can their confciences be in any manner affected by fuch concur

of individuals not concerned

in the truth of the religion which receives the civil eftablishment.

* Mr. Burke, a profeffed member of the national church, fpeaks, as all other fuch members feel about it. "First, I beg leave to speak of our church establishment, which is the firft of our prejudices; not a prejudice deftitute of reafon, but involving in it profound and extenfive wisdom. I fpeak of it firft. It is the first, and laft, and midft in our minds." Reflections on the Revolu tion in France, p. 136.

rence,

rence, although they should disapprove of, or condemn the tenets of that church; fince, as Dr. Rogers obferves, a religion becomes not one jot the more true for being established. The difference, therefore, is great between the fubmiffion, which, upon the principles of all civil government, we are bound to fhew generally to the civil fanction or establishment, which the state gives to any religious system, and the intellectual adoption of the peculiar tenets and doctrines, which diftinguish that particular fociety from any other. The toleration, which the legislature grants to thofe, who differ from the establifhed religion, is the only proof that needs be alledged, that they do not mean to force or impofe the belief of their religious tenets upon the confciences of any member of the fociety. For what can be more just and equitable, than to leave every person at full liberty to act according to his own underflanding, in matters which regard none but himself?"

Before I leave this fubject, it will be proper to say something upon the nature of church lands, or ecclefiaftical property, concerning which many erroneous notions are

* Noodt's Difcourfe on Liberty of Conscience, P. 97, 98.

conceived and propagated, from inattention to their origin or fource. When the state establifhes a religion, it clothes or invests the clergy of that religion with certain political qualities; one of which is a corporate capacity, by which they are made perpetual bodies, always reprefented by fucceffors. By this quality of perpetuity, whatever property is once acquired by a clergyman in his corporate capacity, it is rendered unalienable for ever, and was therefore formerly expreffed by our ancestors, by the term Mortmain; which imported, that the hands, into which the property had paffed, poffeffed no active power nor capacity of transferring it to others. Now the right of holding, modelling, and transferring property, is given and regu lated by the fovereign power of every state ; and therefore the civil power alone could enable individuals to veft the land, which by the state they were permitted to enjoy to the exclufion of others, in these corporations; or, to use the words of the ftatute (7 Ed. I.) per quod in manum mortuam devenerint. Whatever land was given by the ftate, or by the municipal law was permitted to be given by individuals to the church, was to moft purpofes divested of thofe transferable and defcendible, or inheritable qualities, with which

the general landed property of the nation was endowed. But the ftate ftill retained its general power or controul over it, even after it had arrived into the dead poffeffion of the church; for although aliens might be, and were often, in fact, bishops, abbots, and other fpiritual corporations in this country, yet the law never permitted them to hold, enjoy, and defend the lands belonging or appropriated to them, even in their corporate capacity, in the fame manner as natural-born fubjects *; which could not be, if the property fo given to, or vested in these spiritual corporations, were from that moment taken out of the controul of the civil power.

The pious difpofitions of our ancestors rendered them often lavish in their donations to the church; whether to procure their fupplications during life, or, according to their religious belief, to infure their interceffions with God after their death, to shorten or alleviate their sufferings in purgatory, is immaterial to confider; for if this fort of property could be given to, and be enjoyed by these spiritual corporations independently of the ftate, then could not the ftate any more prevent the donation or inveftiture of the property, than new-model, alter, or alienate it,

* Vide the cafe of the Prior of Chelfey and other cafes in the year books.