ing, polity, and virtue, of which the world outside knew no more than of the dust under their feet, and which must have perished but for the magnificent industry of this explorer of the grave;the matchless sculpture and painting, of which it created, if not the mind, the age; the cathedral music, the origin, and among the richest productions, of that art which at once solaces, and uplifts the heart of man, the noblest auxiliary to the offering of the spirit to heaven;the still more hallowed labours of religious charity, the great receptacles for the poor, the hospitals, their houses of rest and reception by the way side for the traveller, in the disturbed times of the world; the missions to every part of the earth, sustained with more than kingly munificence, and almost more than human zeal, perseverance, and intrepidity;—and when we contrast that day with ours, the labours of the day of generous ignorance with the labours of the day of parsimony and illumination; the achievements of magnanimous superstition with the abortions of philosophy; the cathedral with the conventicle; we may be entitled to feel some doubt, whether the opulence of a national Church is the impoverishment of a people-whether such a Church would not be the safest, purest, and most effectual source through which civilization could be poured upon a people ; -or whether the same feeling which would reduce a Church to the narrowest limits of subsist

ence,

would not be jealous of the tree that gathered the dew on its branches for the ground beneath; or level the mountain that first caught the glories of the sunrise, and poured down the stream, pure and perpetual, from heaven.

To the habitual declamatory objections—that tithe is, by its nature, unfit for the maintenance of a clergy; and is, above all, prejudicial to agriculture; or that, to compel those to contribute to a National Church, who may feel indifferent to its worship, is a palpable injustice; the Mosaic ordinances furnish the cogent answer-that tithe was the original measure, and continued instrument, of Jewish Church revenue: and that this measure was appointed in a country the most exclusively agricultural, and the most prosperously cultivated, ever known. As to tribute, no exception to the half-shekel (even in its obnoxious shape of a poll-tax) was receivable from any Jew of the legal age, on any ground, and more especially on a ground so certain to be adopted by fraud, indifference, parsimony, or revolt, as a doubt of the fitness of the Temple for a place of worship, or of the fitness of having any religion at all.

The question is, not of the applicability of the Mosaic Church laws to later times, but of their natural justice. The Church of England derives none of her rights, and but few of her forms, from the Church of Judæa; but her principles are the same. While the principles of the Esta

blishment are impugned, as totally irreconcileable with natural rights, offensive to enlightened reason, and hostile to public prosperity; that Establishment, perhaps more careless of the result for herself, than for her country; is entitled to turn to the highest conceivable authority, and point to her principles, one by one, illustrated in the national and religious code written by the finger, not of man, but of God! What reply can the honest doubter have, but to throw himself on his knees, and thank that God that his doubts had not risen into the impiety of action.

Those rights and rules were the express ordinances of Him who knows all the sources of public vigour; the supreme Master of all the instruments of individual virtue; incapable of infringing on the claim of any of his creatures; and whose declared purpose it was, to make the Jewish nation the happiest, the purest, the wisest, and, as the sum and security of all, the most religious, people of mankind.

The necessity of a Religious Establishment, wherever religion is to be sustained in its highest degree of vigour, and public utility, is a matter of demonstration.

Religion, of all the gifts of God to man, holds the first place; from its importance to society, as the source of obedience, and to the individual, as the only solid ground of happiness on earth, and hope in the future world.

But religion is not born with man; it is not an instinct. Nor is it a necessity of his nature; it is not an appetite. Man is not urged to it, as to food: it must therefore be brought to him.

And as the object of all government is the provision of good for the nation; the especial care of the state must be exercised for the provision of the greatest good. There must be a NATIONAL

RELIGION.

But the teaching of this religion must not be left to unfixed and irresponsible individuals; who may be ignorant, or disloyal, who probably will be insubordinate, and who, having no assured subsistence by their office, will naturally abandon it on the first inducement of profit, caprice, or indolence. Its teachers must therefore be settled, responsible, and subordinate. But settlement implies a regular profession; responsibility, known rules; and subordination, a distinction of ranks.-There must be a

NATIONAL CLERGY.

But the principles of the religion must not be left to the innovations of individuals; who may be actuated by the heated passions, temporary views, sectarian jealousies, or hazardous ambitions, which make so large a share of human character. They must be gravely formed, authoritatively delivered, and publicly known. There must be a NATIONAL LITURGY.

But the personal subsistence of the Clergy must not be left to the good-will of either government or people. In the former instance, the first state emergency extinguishes the Church; in the latter, the Clergy must sink from canvassers for employment into mendicants for food. The living generation may cling to their duties; but no man will educate his son for a profession, which the next popular breath may scatter into dust. The succession of a learned, faithful, and manly clergy, will be totally cut off: and the land will be left to angry intrigue or degraded ignorance; to popular sycophants, training for popular firebrands; to gloomy infidelity, and domineering sowers of sedition. England has already laid up for herself a formidable treasure of experience. If she uncover the grave again, what can she see there, but the ashes of her royalty and the blood of her people!—There must be a RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT, if there is to be a Constitution.

CHAPTER XXX.

MIRACLES.

MIRACLE and Prophecy are the two chief testimonials to the divine origin of a Revelation; the one being a proof that supernatural power is concerned in its existence; the other, that it is the dictate of supernatural wisdom. The Revelation may exist without either, but they importantly aid its progress. They are the wings, that at once attest its descent from a higher sphere, and bear it with victorious rapidity through the world. The peculiarity, abruptness, and force, of miracles, have made our Divines generally regard them as solitary interpositions of the Deity. It is more probable that they have a system; distinct, of course, from the visible order of nature, but possessing principles and an order of its own. One striking feature is, their constant connection with Revelation, and the extreme infrequency of their employment, as connected with any other work of Providence. But, with Revelation the connection is so strong, that it actually moulds them into four distinct general forms.