the assumed prerogatives of the church, the growing information of the people has wrested from it. Physicians, schoolmasters, and midwives, have rescued themselves from the talons of the ecclesiastical harpies, and set a good example to the country at large; and shall not the now mighty body of dissenters be able to do for themselves what the schoolmasters and midwives have done?

We will now take a survey of the church as it appears at present: by which we shall, I trust, arrive at some useful ideas.

CHAPTER XXI.

ENGLISH CHURCH-CONTINUED.

THE CHURCH, AS DESCRIBED BY ITS FRIENDS.

WHY do the Apostolical writings say-" honour the king, and be subject to principalities" so often, but honour the spiritual prince, or senate doth never occur?...... Of these things in the Apostolical writings, or in any near those times, there doth not appear any footstep or pregnant intimation. But supposing the church was designed to be one in this manner of political regiment, it must be quite another thing, nearly resembling a worldly state, yea in effect, soon resolving itself into one; supposing, as is now pretended, that its management is now committed to an ecclesiastical monarch, it must soon become a worldly kingdom; for such a polity could not be upheld without applying the same means and engines, without practising the same methods and arts, whereby secular governments are maintained. Its majesty must be maintained by conspicuous pomp and phantasy: its dignity and power must be supported by wealth which it must corrade and accumulate by large incomes, by exaction of tributes and taxes. It must exert authority in enacting laws for keeping its state in order and securing its interests, backed with rewards and pains; especially as, considering its title being so dark, and grounded on no clear warrant, many always will contest it. It must apply constraint and force for procuring obedience, and correcting transgressions. It must have guards to preserve its safety and authority. It must be engaged in wars to defend itself, and make good its interests. It must use subtlety and artifice for promoting its interests, and

It must erect

countermining the policy of its adversaries. judicatories, and decide causes with the formality of legal process; whence tedious suits, crafty pleadings, quirks of law and petti-foggeries, fees and charges, extortion and barratry, etc. will necessarily creep in. All which things do much disagree from the original constitution and designs of the christian church, which is averse from pomp, doth reject domination, doth not require craft, wealth, or force to maintain it; but did at first, and may subsist without any such means.-. ·Dr. Barrow, ViceChancellor of Cambridge in Charles II.'s reign, and one of the brightest ornaments of the Church of England.

ON a first glance of the outline of the church given in the last Chapter, one would be ready to exclaim, here is a constitution carefully marked out, and filled up with abundant officers; but when we come to examine it, we find it a constitution merely for collecting money, and not at all for moral discipline, as I shall presently shew it continues to this day. We will, therefore, forthwith contemplate it as it now exists, and shall, I doubt not, arrive at some useful notions. First and foremost we have

THE KING, HEAD OF THE CHURCH, AND DEFENDER of THE FAITH.

Of what use it is that the king should occupy this singular station it is difficult to see, except that it enables him to appoint all bishops, and keep them subservient to his secular power.

This was the object of Henry VIII., of Elizabeth, and the Stuarts, and this influence has been exercised with the most fatal results to the character of the hierarchy and to religion; but as

to any active exertion of it for the good of the church, we may look for it in vain. No reform can take place in the doctrines of the church except at a Convocation, and this cannot be summoned except by the king, in conjunction with the archbishops. Thus, notwithstanding the desires of a few good men, occasionally appearing amongst the prelates or general clergy, the church has stood an object of wonder for its strange doctrines and want of moral discipline, amid the growth of the public mind, while the scandalous lives of many of the kings, its legal heads, have heaped upon it unavoidable disgrace. One thing, however, has been made apparent by the close alliance of king and church in this nation--the monarchs have always looked upon the church as a public sponge through which they could suck up and squeeze out again at their pleasure, the wealth of the people. The clergy have gathered up the fees, and tithes, and donations given under many a pious delusion, and the kings have put their hands into the church-box and helped themselves with great delight. William the Conqueror, says Matthew of Paris, and other chroniclers of those times, to furnish his wars in the fourth year of his reign, took all the money, jewels, and plate out of the religious houses, making a rigorous search, and sparing not even the chalices and shrines. He reduced the lands of the church into knights' fees, making the bishops do military service for their baronies, and expelled such as opposed the measure. His son Rufus trod diligently in his steps. Leland, Matthew of Westminster, and Matthew of Paris, all declare that he spared no manner of rapine or simony. As soon as bishoprics and abbeys became vacant, he seized upon all their temporalities, farmed them out to his favourites, or to such as giving most for them, did

not spare to rack the tenants to the utmost; the offices themselves he conferred, not on persons of merit, but sold them to the highest bidder, and thus raised great sums out of the church. At the time of his death he held in his own hands the archbishopric of Canterbury, the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury, and twelve abbeys. Henry I. continued the same custom, holding the primacy in his hands five years, and regularly selling bishoprics, particularly that of Durham, for 1000l., an enormous sum in that day. Stephen through his troublesome reign, during which the whole country was pillaged by armies, and reduced to famine, kept church lands, and seized on church money wherever he could find it. Florence of Worcester says, that the bishop of Salisbury, dying, it is supposed, with not less than forty thousand marks in silver, besides gold, and a variety of rich ornaments in his castles, Stephen helped himself to it all. Henry II. reacted the same thing on the death of the Archbishop of York in his reign; and in 1173, say Ralph Cogshall and Walter of Gisborn, there were no less than seven bishoprics vacant, being held in his own hands-namely, Canterbury, Winchester, Ely, Lincoln, Bath, Hereford and Chichester; and, in 1175, twelve abbeys were vacant from the same cause. Richard I. to enable him to go to the Crusades, exacted immense sums of money from both laity and clergy; and likewise, on his return, to pay the ransom of his captivity in Germany, even seizing all the wool of the Cistercian monks, who had never before paid any thing, and compelling them to redeem it. He found, also, in Hugh Pudsey, bishop of Durham, a very gainful subject. This man, a true churchman, being wealthy, and seeing the king's necessities, bought of him the whole county of Durham for an

ན