"but to be very folicitous against it." Review, Sir, in lefs Hafte, and you will find, I am fo far from pleading ftrenuously for their Admiffion to fuch Employments, that I have not fo much as pleaded for it at all. All I plead for is, the Removal of the Incapacity under which they unjustly lie; the breaking a difgraceful Yoke which the Teft hath put upon their Necks; and the restoring them to their native Freedom and Honour and Right. That the State may have Liberty, if it thinks it needs their faithful Services, to avail itself of them; and that it be left to their Liberty, their Virtue, their Choice either to accept or refufe Pofts of Truft under the Government; and that they may not ftand branded and ftigmatiz'd before the World as Perfons incapable and unworthy of fuch Trufts *.

SECT. III.

Of our CONSTITUTION in Church and State.

Yo

OU feem a little difpleas'd at my doubting "Whether the Church were an effential and "an half Part of our CONSTITUTION? and whe"ther Church and State here in England are fo incorporated and united as that, like the married Pair, "they

•

In the late excellent COMMENT on Warburton's Alliance, &c. the Paffage of my fecond Letter, to which this refers, is not only mistaken, But not faithfully and exactly quoted. In the Letter it stands thus, p. 37,---" Though I think THIS LAW a most unrighteous Restraint upon us, "and an undoubted Violation of our natural Rights; yet I am far from being perfuaded that its REPEAL would be of the leaft Service to our Intereft as I doubt, and have often thought, there is too much Truth in what you fay, that high Trufts and Court-Employments would be extremely apt to corrupt us; and that it would really rather injure than frengthen our Intereft. I have never therefore as a DISSENTER been at "all folicitous for the REPEAL."

DISSENTERS.

Note, This is express'd only as a Doubt or Sufpicion; but the Author of that COMMENT hath made it fay in pofitive and strong Terms (p. 123) "That a Repeal of the TEST and CORPORATION AS would REALLY be injurious to the Interest of Protestant Diffenters; or,

that

they muft ftand or fall together? And alledge, "that in all the Converfation as well as in the "Writing of Diffenters and others, we read and "hear continually of the ecclefiaftical as diftinguish'd "from the civil Conftitution: Yea, even from the "Throne and both Houfes of Parliament we often "hear of our Conftitution in Church and State*." But divest yourself, for a Moment, of worldly Attachments, which infenfibly warp the Mind, and you will fee it, I believe, to be a very rational Doubt. For our ecclefiaftical, however commonly diftinguifh'd by Sounds, I have fully proved in my first Letter, (p. 21-34, to which you have not prefum'd to make the leaft Reply) as alfo in the Beginning of this Letter, to be really no other than a civil Conftitution; a Syftem or Frame contrived,

that I am perfuaded it would rather injure than ftrengthen our Interest." Which is giving the Passage a very different Turn.

And when that Gentleman afks,----" Is there an abfolute Incapacity of "( being virtuous in high Stations ?" I Answer, No: But if there be a great Danger of being vitious; this will justify furely an Indifference; a Non-folicitude about them; and will excufe, at least, a Doubt, a Fear as to the Event. And when he further asks,----" Would any Man think "his Conduct justifiable, should he refuse a large Eftate merely because "of the greater Danger of his being corrupted by it?" I Anfwer, 1. There have been Inftances of fuch Refusal recorded, and, perhaps, justly, as Inftances of heroic Virtue. But, 2. TO REFUSE it when offer'd, is a thing extremely different from being SOLICITOUs to obtain it. Public Offices and Trufts, when offered by thofe in Power, ought not to be refufed by fuch as think themselves capable of rightly discharging them; because this would be to reject an Opportunity of Public Service, to which their Country calls them. But this may be done without a SoHicitude to procure them.

The Paffage on which this ingenious Author has ftep'd afide to remark, speaks but the very fame Sentiment which himself has elsewhere, perhaps more strongly exprefs'd. Comment, &c. p. 138. "An Indif

46

ferency to the Honours, Riches and Pleasures of this World, a Contempt of and Victory over them, is the Independency and Supremacy “which the true Religion and Church can boast; the Refignation (or Lofs) of which must be infinitely dangerous to her, her Poifon, her "death Wound."----Again, p. 131. "Though it may be thought I am pleading for the Introduction of Protestant Diffenters into Places "of Profit and Trust, I am fully perfuaded that their having fuch Places would not make them more religious Men, nor from Numbers "of them fo employ'd would their Societies appear with greater Re44 putation as religious Societies."

*Let. I. p. 11. II Def. p, 9, 10,
D 2

dif

difpos'd and enacted by the CIVIL MAGISTRATE; as much as the Conftitution of the Treasury, of the Army, or of the Courts of Westminster-Hall. These all, Sir, have their Conftitutions, (that is, their feveral Parts of the public Business affign'd them to dispatch, and their feveral Officers, and Forms and Methods of proceeding in them) as really, as truly, and as much as the Church. The ARMY is the Conftitution and Order of the civil Magiftrate relating to the Direction of the Military Force. The TREASURY is the Conftitution and Order of the fame Magiftrate relating to the Collection and Dif pofal of the public Monies. The COURTS of Westminster-Hall are the Conftitution of the fame Magiftrate for the difpenfing public Juftice. And the CHURCH is the Conftitution and Order of the fame Magiftrate relating to the Manner in which the public Worship is to be perform'd. The Officers in each are ALL entirely made, inftructed, controul'd by the Power of the CIVIL MAGISTRATE: 'Tis by his Authority alone they are all qualified and impower'd to act in their refpective Stations ; and 'tis in that manner and by thofe Rules only which His Wifdom hath prefcrib'd that in all their refpective Offices they severally proceed.

What you call then the ecclefiaftical is really, you fee, no other than a Branch or Limb of the civil Conflitution; and what you call the Church is in truth no more an effential, much leis an balf Part of our CONSTITUTION, than the Treafury, the Army, of either of the Courts of Westminster-ball. Should, now, the Wisdom of the Legiflature think proper to new form any of thefe Conftitutions; for instance, the Method of difpenfing Juftice in any of our LawCourts (which Courts, by the way, are all of much longer ftanding than the Conftitution of our prefent Church) by which a Saving would arife of vaft Sums to the Public, and Justice be difpens'd in a pore rational and eafy Way: Would not you faile

to

to hear fome zealous Gentlemen of the Robe, ftand forth and infift, That thefe COURTS were an effential and an half Part of the CONSTITUTION; and that therefore whoever mov'd for, or so much as wish'd an ALTERATION in either of them, could not be fafely trusted with any Share of the public Power, and was really in Truth an Enemy to the STATE The learned Gentlemen of that Robe, Sir, nơ doubt, alike fimile to hear you thus reafoning as to the Church*.

By

the CONSTITUTION in Church and State; then, of which we often hear even in Speeches " and Addreffes from and to the Throne," can be meant nothing elfe, than, that ORDER or FORM of Government refpecting ALL Perfons and Things which is establish'd by the Laws and Customs of this Realm. A CONSTITUTION by which the King or QUEEN, as fupreme Head of the Church, is the Fountain of all Power and Jurifdiction therein; authoriz'd to inftruct, over-rule and controul all the Archbishops, Bishops and Priests in this Kingdom, in

* That the Account here given of the Nature and Conftitution of the Church of England is quite agreeable to the Sentiments of our first REFORMERS, the Founders and Framers of it, appears from the Determination of a felect Affembly of them, conveen'd at Windsor by K, Edward VI. by whom (as may be concluded from Archbishop Cranmer's Manufcript) it was declared,

"That all Chriftian Princes have committed to them immediately "from GOD the whole Cure of their Subjects; as well concerning the "Administration of God's Word for the Cure of Soul, as concerning the "Miniftration of things folitical and civil Governance. In both thefe "Miniftrations they must have fundry Minifters under them, to supply "that which is appointed to their feveral Office.

"The civil Minifters under the King's Majefty in this Realm be "those whom it fhall pleafe his Highnefs, for the time, to put in Au"thority under him; as for Example, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Treafurer, Lord Admiral, &c.

"The Minifters of God's Word under his Majesty be the Bishops, "Parfons, Vicars, and fuch other Priests as be appointed by his Highnefs to that Miniftration; as for Example, the Bishop of Canterbury, "the Bishop of Winchefer, the Parfon of Coynwick, &c.

"All the faid Officers and Minifters as well of the one fort as of "the other, be appointed, affign'd, and elected in every Place by the "Laws and Orders of Kings and Princes." [Vide an Extract from Archbishop Cranmer's M. S. Stilling, Iren. Part XX. Cb. viii. p. 391

all

all their moft SPIRITUAL and ECCLESIASTICAL Concerns A CONSTITUTION, by which a LADY, when fuch fills the Throne, is impower'd to compofe public Prayers for the Church; to stop all Preaching therein; to fill vacant Bifhoprics with what Persons she pleafes, or not to fill them at all*; to direct all Ecclefiaftics what they shall, or shall not preach; and even in the moft abftrufe and metaphyFical Points to be the final Judge of HERESIE ; whofe Judgment muft ftand, as to what shall or shall not be deem'd HERESIE in this Church, even though it happen to contradict that of all her learn'd CLERGY in Convocation conveen'd.

Thus that renown'd LADY Queen Elizabeth, in the Fulness of her ecclefiaftical Power, HERSELF COMpos'd a Prayer, Archdeacon Echard + informs us, for the Ufe of a great Number of her Nobility and Gentry, as well as her Soldiers and Sailors, in the Expedition against Cadiz, directing it to be used daily in every Ship. And by virtue of her Supremacy fhe might, I prefume, if the had pleas'd (and that any future QUEEN may) compofe Prayers for the Ule of the Archbishops, Bishops, and all the Clergy of the Land; and injoin their folemn Ufe every Sunday in the Church; and that the Ufe of fuch deVout FEMININE Compofitions, no Bishop nor Priest can agreeably to our CONSTITUTION, in any wife refufe,

The fame Royal LADY, by virtue of her Proclamation only, put an entire ftop to all Preaching of Minifters and others throughout the Kingdon; and the People were charged to hear no other Preaching or Doctrine, but the Epiftle and Gofpel of the Day,

* Any of the Bishopricks may be kept vacant by the Princes of England, as thofe of Ely and Oxford were by Q. Elizabeth; the latter had no Bishop for 22 Years. The Parliament diffolv'd the rich Bishopric of Durham in King Edward VI's Reign, and gave the Profits to the Crown. And it had remain'd diffolv'd to this Day, probably, had not Popish Q Mary reftor'd it.

Hift. of England, p. 367. Col. 1.

and