the Greek nor the Armenian, nor, fince heats are fubfided, the Roman fyftem of religion, we prefer the Proteftant; not because we think it has lefs of the Chriftian religion in it, but becaufe, in our judgment, it has more. We are proteftants, not from indifference but from zeal.

We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is by his constitution a religious animal; that atheism is against, not only our reafon but our inftincts; and that it cannot prevail long. But if, in the moment of riot, and in a drunken delirium from the hot fpirit drawn out of the alembick of hell, which in France is now fo furioufly boil. ing, we should uncover our nakedness by throwing off that Chriftian religion which has hitherto been our boaft and comfort, and one great fource of civilization amongst us, and among many other nations, we are apprehenfive (being well aware that the mind will not endure a void) that fome uncouth, pernicious, and degrading fuperftition, might take place of it.

For that reafon, before we take from our eftablishment the natural human means of eftimation, and give it up to contempt, as you have done, and in doing it have incurred the penalties you well deferve to fuffer, we defire that fome other may be prefented to us in the place of it. We fhall then form our judgment.

On these ideas, instead of quarrelling with establishments, as fome do, who have made a philofophy and a religion of their hoftility to fuch inftitutions, we cleave closely to them. We are refolved to keep an established church, an established

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eftablished monarchy, an established aristocracy, and an established democracy, each in the degree it exists, and in no greater. I fhall fhew you prefently how much of each of thefe we poffefs.

It has been the misfortune (not as these gentlemen think it, the glory) of this age, that every thing is to be difcuffed, as if the constitution of our country were to be always a fubject rather of altercation than enjoyment. For this reason, as well as for the fatisfaction of thofe among you (if any fuch you have among you) who may wish to profit of examples, I venture to trouble you with a few thoughts upon each of thefe establishments. I do not think they were unwife in antient Rome, who, when they wifhed to new-model their laws, fent commiffioners to examine the best constituted republics within their reach.

First, I beg leave to fpeak of our church establishment, which is the first of our prejudices, not a prejudice deftitute of reason, but involving in it profound and extenfive wisdom. I fpeak of it firft. It is firft, and laft, and midft in our minds. For, taking ground on that religious fyftem, of which we are now in poffeffion, we continue to act on the early received, and uniformly continued fenfe of mankind. That fenfe not only, like a wife architect, hath built up the august fabric of ftates, but like a provident proprietor, to preferve the structure from prophanation and ruin, as a facred temple, purged from all the impurities of fraud, and violence, and injustice, and tyranny, hath folemnly and for ever confecrated the commonwealth, and all that officiate in it. This confecration is made, that all who admi

nifter in the government of men, in which they ftand in the person of God himself, should have high and worthy notions of their function and deftination; that their hope fhould be full of immortality; that they fhould not look to the paltry pelf of the moment, nor to the temporary and tranfient praise of the vulgar, but to a folid, permanent existence, in the permanent part of their nature, and to a permanent fame and glory, in the example they leave as a rich inheritance to the world.

Such fublime principles ought to be infused into perfons of exalted fituations; and religious establishments provided, that may continually revive and enforce them. Every fort of moral, every fort of civil, every fort of politic inftitu tion, aiding the rational and natural ties that connect the human understanding and affections to the divine, are not more than neceffary, in order to build up that wonderful structure, Man; whofe prerogative it is, to be in a great degree a creature of his own making; and who when made as he ought to be made, is destined to hold no trivial place in the creation. But whenever man is put over men, as the better nature ought ever to prefide, in that cafe more particularly, he fhould as nearly as poffible be approximated to his perfection.

The confecration of the ftate, by a state religious establishment, is neceffary also to operate with an wholefome awe upon free citizens; because, in order to fecure their freedom, they muft en. joy fome determinate portion of power.

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them therefore a religion connected with the state, and with their duty towards it, becomes even more neceffary than in fuch focieties, where the people by the terms of their fubjection are confined to private fentiments, and the management of their own family concerns. All perfons poffeffing any portion of power ought to be ftrongly and awefully impreffed with an idea that they act in truft; and that they are to account for their conduct in that truft to the one great mafter, author and founder of fociety.

This principle ought even to be more ftrongly impreffed upon the minds of thofe who compofe the collective fovereignty than upon thofe of fingle princes. Without inftruments, thefe princes can do nothing. Whoever ufes inftruments, in finding helps, finds alfo impediments. Their power is therefore by no means compleat; nor are they fafe in extreme abuse. Such perfons, however elevated by flattery, arrogance, and felf-opinion, must be fenfible that, whether covered or not by pofitive law, in fome way or other they are accountable even here for the abufe of their truft. If they are not cut off by a rebellion of their people, they may be ftrangled by the very Janiffaries kept for their fecurity against all other rebellion.

Thus we have feen the king of France fold by his foldiers for an encrease of pay. But where popular authority is abfolute and unrestrained, the people have an infinitely greater, because a far better founded confidence in their own power. They are themfelves, in a great mea

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fure, their own inftruments. They are nearer to their objects. Befides, they are lefs under responsibility to one of the greateft controlling powers on earth, the fenfe of fame and eftimamation. The fhare of infamy that is likely to fall to the lot of each individual in public acts, is fmall indeed; the operation of opinion being in the inverfe ratio to the number of those who abuse power. Their own approbation of their own acts has to them the appearance of a public judgment in their favour. A perfect democracy therefore the moft fhameless thing in the world. As it is the most shameless, it is alfo the most fearless. No man apprehends in his perfon he can be made fubject to punishment. Certainly the people at large never ought: for as all punishments are for example towards the confervation of the people at large, the people at large can never become the fubject of punishment by any human hand*. It is therefore of infinite importance that they fhould not be fuffered to imagine that their will, any more than that of kings, is the ftandard of right and wrong.. They ought to be perfuaded that they are full as little entitled, and far lefs qualified, with fafety to themselves, to ufe any arbitrary power whatfoever; that therefore they are not, under a false fhew of liberty, but, in truth, to exercife an unnatural inverted domination, tyrannically to exact, from those who officiate in the ftate, not an entire devotion to their intereft, which is their right,

* Quicquid multis peccatur inultum.

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