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Saxon Heptarchy.

Our monarchy. limited in its original creatión.

fame rights and power, when they were left to themselves by their Roman conquerors, did they divide themselves into an heptarchy, or feven distinct kingdoms, under the Saxons; and when they had experienced the inconveniences of these divergent fovereignties, they reconcentered the fupremacy in one monarch, as it has ever fince continued. In this fame spirit, and in the exercise of these same rights, did the Saxon conquerors of our British anceftors, << when they had fubdued the Britons, chufe to themselves kings, and required an oath of them to submit to the judgment of the law, as much as any of their subGeneral view jects." So when the Saxons, as mafters of the vanquished Britons, began to look upon themselves as the political community of this inland, they "established a form of adminiftration, which limited the prince, and required that public affairs fhould be fettled by affemblies of the chief men of the nation. The privileges of the people were afterwards enlarged by the alterations, which the wife and virtuous Alfred introduced; and this confir

of our govern

ment.

ftroying the former; but, without the confent of the people, can never erect a new one."

* Mirror of Juftice, c. i. fect. z.

+ Dr. Kippis' Sermon, preached at the Old Jewry, on the 4th Nov. 1788, p. 14.

mation of the mode of trial by juries was one of the nobleft advantages ever conferred on human fociety. Nor did the Norman conqueft deftroy our conftitution, though it hindered its operation for a time, and gave occafion to the exercise of much tyranny. On the contrary, the English laws gradually recovered their vigour, and became the basis of the charter of Henry the Firft; of the celebrated Magna Charta, in the reign of King John; and of other charters. How strong a fense Englishmen had of their legal right to liberty, is manifeft from the numerous inftances, in which they demanded, that the great charter should be folemnly confirmed. Even the feudal policy, however defective it may be justly esteemed, compared with the benefits we now enjoy, was formed on the principles of freedom, with respect to those perfons, who were poffeffed of landed property. There was, likewise, in that system, a spirit of improvement; fo that it gradually gave way, and naturally brought in a better state of things, as fociety advanced towards perfection." In fhort, to the exercise of these indefeasible rights of the community is to be attributed every legal alteration or improvement of the conftitution and government of

this kingdom, fince the establishment of the English monarchy, in the perfon of king Egbert, to the present reign of his majesty King George the Third; the particulars of which we shall proceed to confider.

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CHA P. IV.

OF THE CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION.

I

Have already obferved, that one of the natural rights, which each individual retains, even independently of the fociety, of which he is a member, is the uninterrupted communication and intercourfe of the foul with its Creator; and Mr. Payne says, that among ft the natural rights, which he retains, are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind; confequently religion is one of those rights.

We need not recur to schoolmen to understand or admit this univerfal maxim of religion, that our dependance upon our creator binds us indifpenfibly to a grateful acknowledgment of our exiftence, and a fincere and unreferved tender of our minds and hearts, to think and act as he fhall require; for I conclude with all thofe, who are neither atheists nor deifts, that the light and grace, which Almighty God communicates to his creature, in confequence of this offering, are perfonally binding upon the individual, to whom they are communicated, and confequently cannot be controuled by other G

human

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human beings collectively or individually,

who ftand in the fame predicament of exclufive refponfibility to their Creator.

The

right, therefore, which each individual poffeffes of this free and uninterrupted communication and intercourfe with his Creator, is effentially paramount to all human, civil, or political power whatever.

* "Religion, gentlemen, appears to me to be a gift, which God bestows on every individual, fubject to his movements and inspirations, but in every other refpect entirely free, and beyond the reach of any human jurisdiction; therefore, no one ought to affociate against his will, or without fome reasonable cause or motive, with any religious fociety whatever." And the great Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray, a prelate of the estabcivil controul. lifhed religion in a Roman Catholic country under an abfolute monarchy, fpeaks the fame language. "Liberty of thought is an impregnable fortrefs, which no human power. can force; therefore, kings fhould not take upon themselves to direct in matters of religion."

Liberty of thought in religious matters not fubject to

Profeffor Noodt's Difcourfe upon Liberty of Confcience, as tranflated by A. Macawlay, p. 27.

Fenelon, as quoted by Dr. Rogers, Vindication of

the Civil Establishment of Religion, p. 42.

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