CONCLUSION.

N the variety of natter, which the nature

In the uitde of inatta which ma IN of my undertaking has obliged me to

touch upon, I have unintentionally exceeded the limits, to which I originally meant to confine myself. The importance however of the queftions themselves will, I hope, fcreen me from the imputation of prolixity. I have throughout the work endeavoured to make a faithful and candid reprefentation of every fact, that I had occafion to speak of; if any however fhall be found to have been mifconceived or mifreprefented, I folemnly disavow the intention of misleading others, though I may have erred myself.

Attempts have been lately made with much rancour and much infolence to mifrepresent and vilify our conftitution. I have exerted my humble efforts to counteract them; and I fhall ever boast of my wifhes to represent to my countrymen the conftitution of this kingdom as the most perfect work of human polity. If in the gradual formation of it, we have been more fortunate or more wife, than our neighbours, we may alfo ftill boaft of being the foremost towards attaining the highest poffible perfection

3

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

The alliance which our conftitution has instituted 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 seem 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 difcufs the merits of any religious perfuafion whatever; and if any reflection or observation have efcaped me, that can displease 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 phrafes, which may not ftand the fevere ordeal of theological precision: for instance, it is usually said, 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 jurifdi&ion, which the act of confecration gives not, and which confifts in the power of commanding in spiritual matters under pain of fin, fpiritually

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 conftitution, 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 veits no fuch prerogative, right, or power in the crown. For upon the avoidance of a bishoprick, by itature 25 H. VIII. 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 miffive 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 pleafes. 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 two bifhops, or to four bishops, requiring them to confirm, inveft, ana confecrate the perfon fo elected." This confirmation, invefliture, and confecration are the acts, bywhich the conftitution 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 transferred to their king whatever part of the headthip of the civil 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 progress in the melioration or improvement of a fyftem is conclufive evidence, that the ground-work of the fuperftructure is in its nature firm and permanent. I have endeavoured to trace and mark the advances, which our conftitution has been gradually making fince its first institution towards the perfection of civil

establishment 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 inveft the king with a power of collating spiritual jurifdiction; for they expressly direct the bishop to apply to the archbishop or other bithops for that, which was not in its nature conferable by the laity; for though the law subjects the archbishop and bishops to the feverest penalties and forfeitures, if after fuch election or nomination they refufe to confirm and invest the perfon elected or nominated, yet it autho rizes not the king or any other perfons to confirm and invest, 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 Chrift's church without foch 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 establishment 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 ftate, and not of the fupreme or other fpiritual minifters of the church of Chrift; for in the year 1350 (25 Ed. III.) though they then did and for many centuries afterwards, continued to acknowledge the fpiritual fupremacy of the pope, they. complained, that he affumed a right to give and grant church benefices to aliens and denizens, as if he had been patron and adwowee 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 earnest of future improvements, as the exigencies of times and circumftances fhall require them.

To the bleffings of our happy constitution do we at this moment owe the exalted fituation we hold amidst surrounding nations envying, diftracted, and distrest. 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.