see, that by references and quotations, a surety against misrepresentation, and that the only one, is afforded?

To keep the Bible as much as may be out of sight, is a policy, which, as far as circumstances have admitted, has ever been pursued in common, by Church-of-Romanism and Church-ofEnglandism.

By Church-of-Romanism it was originally pursued in that coarse and clumsy way, which, for so many centuries, continued to be not ill-suited to the coarseness, and ignorance, and stupidity of the times. By the Church-of-Englandism, in the instance here in question, it was pursued in that sort of way which was suited to the state of the public mind, at that less immature period of its existence.

The Established Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian Church: the Established Church of England is an Episcopalian Church.-True: but this difference between the two forms of government, what is it to the purpose?-What?-unless it be, that while to the nature of a Presbyterian Church, it is not congenial to palm upon the people a spurious substitute for a genuine abridgment, to the nature of an Episcopalian Church in general, or at least to that of the Church of England in particular, an imposition of this sort is congenial.

Oh! but, if in this summary, not only the references to the texts, on which it is grounded, and

by which it is justified, but the texts themselves, were inserted, there would be no end to it: it would not be the thing, which is so indisputably needful, and what it professes and is designed to be: it would not be fit for-it would be by much too large for the young and tender mouths for which it is intended.

True enough but what is the consequence. That no summary with the text attached to it, should on any occasion, or for any purpose, be employed? That the pretended quintessence should remain at all times, and be circulated in all places, without a syllable from the sacred original to justify it?-No surely. But that there should be two publications: one with the texts, as well as the references; the other with the references alone. The one would serve for justification, the other for instruction: the one for those whose acquirements enabled them to judge for themselves; the other for those, whose time of life and want of acquirements, rendered them unable, for the present at least, to apply the rational faculty to this most important indeed, but unhappily proportionably arduous use.

To his Lordship of London, (see Appendix, p. 145.) the Puritans may be seen presenting themselves in no other character than that of "exciters of troubles." To some eyes it may, perhaps, be more agreeable to behold in those same Sectaries, men of principle, manifesting for years together,

the qualities of sincerity, piety, zeal, patience, and perseverance. To these same persons, on this same field, it may moreover, perhaps, be not unacceptable, to behold the difference between Puritans and Impuritans. If so, let them, in the following extracts, or-what will be still better-in the original, see the account given of the matter, in Neale's History of the Puritans, Toulmin's Edition, iii. 354.

Anno 1648, September 15, of the two Scottish Catechisms, the larger was, by order of the two Houses of Parliament, printed for public use. It was at the express" desire" of the two Houses, that the "marginal references to Scripture "were inserted."* It was for this cause alone that from November the 5th, 1647, being the day on which the shorter Catechism was presented "to the House of Commons," the presentation of this larger Catechism had been deferred for upwards of four months, viz," till the 14th of April," 1648.

"The shorter Catechism," (furnished, it may in like manner be presumed, with its quotations,)

*The quotations being at present printed, as well as those words and figures to which alone, perhaps, in strictness of speech, the term reference can with propriety be applied,-by the words "marginal references," were meant to be designated (it should seem) by Neal, the quotations, as they now stand, as well as the references.

"the King, after many solicitations, at the treaty "of the Isle of Wight, offered" (says Neale) "to "license with a suitable preface: but, that treaty "proving unsuccessful, it was not accomplished."

About fourteen years afterwards, viz. in the year 1662,-two years, or thereabouts, after the Restoration of Charles the Second,-comes the Act of Uniformity: (13 and 14th Ch. 2. c. 4.) and now it is, that that picture of the religion of Jesus, which bears upon the face of it the most perfect test of its faithfulness that the nature of the case admits of, is cast out: cast out, and in the place of it, the old daubing, on the face of which not so much as any the least pretence to the character of faithfulness is visible, is forced into use.

Thus it was that, for fourteen years, or thereabouts, viz. from 1648 to 1662, the Bible was in honour in England, as, before it came to be so in England, it had already been in Scotland. In comes the profligate King, with his Church-of-Englandism on his front, and his Church-of-Romanism in his heart, and now the Bible is cast out, and this breviary of the Church-of-England religion once more seated in the place of it.

One thousand six hundred and sixty-two is the year, in which, under the notion of its being the more trust-worthy, this account without vouchers was substituted to that to which so ample a stock of vouchers may be seen thus carefully and anxiously annext.

Four and thirty years had the first volume of the Institute of Human Law, for which, such as it is, the world of law is indebted to Sir Edward Coke,-been in the knowledge, if not in the hands, of every man by whom any part was taken in this disastrous change. Quotations at length? no: room could not admit of it: importance did not require it. But, without indication given of his authorities, indication given in the usual way of reference, that lawyer, with all his confidence, would never have dared to encounter the public eye.

Not to speak of the Hales, the Hawkinses, the Burns, the Blackstones-by what one English lawyer, that, from that time ever wrote, was ever betrayed any such presumptuous and absurd conceit, as that, without reference to the original sources, from which the matter of his abridgments was respectively drawn, any work of his would either experience, or deserve to experience, any the smallest particle of regard?

No:-man's law is not to be thus dealt with:it is only of God's law, that profligate men, when the power is in their hands, dare make what they please.*

* On a subject, on which according to all parties the difference between heaven and hell is at stake, the conscientious sincerity and carefulness, of the republicanism of those times, forms so striking a contrast with the profligate and careless despotism, of the monarchy of those same times-not to speak of other