And, per But all, believe me, are not so. haps, those who have most wantoned in the poetic wilds of imagery have meant nothing more than metaphorical combustibles; arguments, to blow up what they held to be inveterate errors and pernicious principles; and to do no injury but to what they conceived unjust proscriptions. Many of the dissenters from the established religion of our country, be assured,. are as wise and good men, as even the reformers. were, who dissented from the established religion of the hierarchy. And their whole reasoning seems to go no farther, than that a discerning legislature should not consult the exclusive personal interests or prejudices of any man, or body of men, but should steadily adhere to that which is for the good of the community. at large. It would be really contrary to tolerance, were dissenters to hold a different language. They certainly have a right to regulate the discipline of their own ceremonial, as they think proper. But liberty of conscience, at the same time, gives an equal right to those who hold a contrary opinion. Moreover, if many passages of Scripture do not altogether ascertain the difference between the Gg VOL. VI. orders orders of bishops and presbyters; that difference, if it be of any consequence, is yet to be illustrated and defined by some of the earliest establishments. In the beginning of the Apocalypse, for instance, the bishops are peculiarly distinguished from all other members of the Christian communities. Their order, at that time, was generally established; and they were, unquestionably, invested with peculiar powers of superintendency, soon after the decease of St. John. But haughty and interested claims of exclusive rights from prescription, cannot be justified, If it be urged, that some reform is wanting, there are few, I believe, who will not have difficulty in withholding their acquiescence. No flow of words, no shining periods, no display even of metaphysical subtlety can, in these days, teach men to believe that what has been an expedient is now settled into a right, and become absolutely indefeasible. The law speaks fundamentally the reverse. It acknowledges in the legislature, what it would be absurd to call in question, a right to alter, and amend, as in its wisdom shall seem meet.* A A&t, vi. Ann. 7. con contrary interpretation would, from the words, be unequivocally high treason. Let us continue, then, if there be necessity for what was done on the spur of an occasion, the test of an oath, a declaration to satisfy the magistrate, that those who profess the Roman Catholic religion in this country do not entertain principles that are dangerous to society, and repugnant to civil and religious liberty. More is unnecessary. And even this cannot hold good in regard to any other sect of dissenters. Moreover, have not the Roman Catholics themselves made à protestation to parliament, that they reject and detest the position, that princes excommunicated by the pope, or by authority of the see of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects; that they deny, in the strongest terms, that the obligation of oaths can be dispensed with by any spiritual power; that a priest, can pardon perjury and high treason, or that faith is not to be kept with heretics? Beyond an oath of renunciation, therefore, of such impious and dangerous tenets, all other exaction, I should think, unnecessary. Let that be administered. Let the Roman Catholics be again admitted into the rank of citizens. And Gg 2 let let them not for ever bend under the severity of laws, which humanity cannot read without horror. Even Blackstone, who was not entirely unprejudiced, says, "If a time should ever arrive, and perhaps it is not very distant, when all fears of a pretender shall have vanished, and the power and influence of the pope shall have become feeble, ridiculous, and despicable, not only in England, but in every country of Europe, it probably would not be amiss to review and soften the rigorous statutes now in force." Every man in England, every subject in his individual capacity, grand juries, bodies corporate, all have the undoubted right of petitioning the legislature, either for the amendment of laws, or for the repeal of them: for, that our constitution has arrived at the utmost point of perfection, it would be incorrect perhaps to say. It is, however, a very good old constitution, notwithing what Mr. Paine may say against it; it has stood many a hard struggle; it has held out a glorious example; and if not quite so clear from infirmities as its fond admirers would wish it to be, it is still capable of being kept upon its legs in vigour, in honour, and, I trust, in perma nency. In In regard to the church, it has not been dissenters alone, who have called for an alterative treatment, a radical, though, at the same time, a lenient reform. A learned bishop himself observes, there is something, undoubtedly, odd in having two creeds, the Nicene and the Athanasian, established in the same church;* in the one of which those are declared accursed, who deny the Son to be of the same substance with the Father; and in the other, those are declared incapable of salvation, who do not assert, there is one substance of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. Did not even Archbishop Tillotson wish the church well rid of the Athanasian creed, and all its perplexities? The liturgy, and the articles of the church of England, we should always recollect, were framed above two centuries ago; when Christendom was just emerging from the ignorance and barbarism of the dark ages. They remain still nearly the same; and cannot, therefore, be supposed entirely suited to the good sense and liberality of the present times. And yet, in this country of liberty, a test is required, not whether a man be a believer in Christ, and a good and faithful subject, but whe Gg 3 Bishop of Clogher's Essay on Spirit. ther |