joint operation render transgression of the covenant on the part of the Crown almost a moral impossibility. The one is the judicious partition of the legislative authority the other is the responsibility attaching to the advisers and official servants of the Crown."

By the first, the Nobles and the Representatives of the Commons are severally armed with a power of constitutional resistance, to oppose to an undue stretch of Prerogative, by the exercise of their own rights and their own privileges. "A power this in the estates of Parliament, which takes away, together with the necessity, the very pretence for any spontaneous interference of the private citizen, otherwise than by the use of the Elective franchise and the right of Petition for the redress of grievances. By the second, those who might be willing to be the instruments of despotism are deterred by the dangers that await the service."

The Crown is thus extricated from the degrading necessity of responsibility to the subject; and "in his public capacity," it is declared, "the King can do no wrong." Hence the most perfect security of the subject's liberty is united with the most absolute inviolability of the sacred person of the Sovereign. "Such is the British Constitution its basis, religion: its end, liberty:"* its principal security, the integrity of the Church and Crown. Next to these principal means of security to British freedom, a due administration of the law, by those invested with authority as magistrates and ministers of justice and religion, is to be reckoned amongst the chief privileges of this great nation. Under the government thus constituted our liberties have been heretofore so secured as to enable every man to consider his house his castle, to rejoice in the possession of his own, and like Israel Horsley Serm. xliv.

*

of old to dwell safely under his own vine and his own fig-tree.*

Surrounding Nations in admiration have exclaimed: Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people,† and in envy they have endeavoured to subvert it; but the Ark of Christ's Church has been with us, and they could not prevail against it.

Of our national privileges, the citizens of this great City rejoice in those, we deem to be the most exalted. In her charitable institutions the principles of our holy religion on which the Constitution stands, are made to shine before men. The enterprise of her merchants bespeaks the unfettered freedom of their energies; and their wealth gives proof of the blessing of God's increase upon their undertakings. The independence of her Corporation is the best preservative of the subjects' liberty; and her executive powers, securing the just exercise of individual rights, are an illustrious example of civic rule. The dignity of her Chief Magistrate enhances the greatness of the British people in the estimation of every foreigner, whether trader or Ambassador; and while it obtains the admiration of the multitude, it excites not their jealousy, being accessible to every grade amongst the citizens, from the aspirant to the civic chair down to the very humblest apprentice; exciting all equally to industry and integrity.

As the award of fellow-citizens due to ability and faithfulness in the discharge of subordinate duties in the Corporation, the office of the Lord Mayor, short-liv'd though it be, is the most exalted station that can be occupied by a subject.§ On retiring from it, he may say with Job: When I went out to the gate, through the city, 1 Kings iv. 25. + Deut. iv. 6. Deut. viii. 17, 18. Haggai ii. 8. § See Note D.

The

meaning to the Court of Justice, the young men saw me with reverence and the aged arose, and stood up. princes refrained talking, and laid their hand upon their mouth. The nobles held their peace... When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. So truly descriptive are these words, not only of the homage of all ranks of men, but also of the grateful feelings of the poor and the afflicted, towards the Chief Magistrate of this great city, when exercising his exalted privileges as well in the impartial and intrepid administration of justice, as in the protection of the best interests of the people; promoting their religion, defending their rights, and patronizing their pious and charitable institutions. Such are the powers put into the hands of the subject; such are the means of upholding the British Constitution.

These are your National privileges, my Christian brethren, as citizens of this great city. Ours are, to share in common with you the blessings of good government, at the same time that our peculiar office compels us to draw your attention, as I have endeavoured to do, not only to their origin, but also, as I proposed in the last place,

3. To the End for which they are conferred upon us, as fellow-citizens with the saints, and household of God. We acknowledge that all power is of God, and we have seen that He has given a Constitution to Society, that He has raised up and put down nations at His pleasure, that He has prescribed a written rule for their government,

*Job xxix. 7—13.

both civil and Ecclesiastical, that He has blessed His people in obedience, punished them for their sins, and destroyed them for their apostacy, and that the end of His Providential arrangement is the Salvation of mankind.

The privileges conferred on this nation arise directly from the Word of God. They make us that we are neither strangers from the covenants of promise, nor foreigners in the land thus blessed with the Light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. By these privileges we are made fellow-citizens with all true believers of the Church of Christ, compared as it is to a city of which we are made free, participating in the benefits belonging to the household and family of God.

These privileges, then, being gifts of God, they should be dear to us as the apple of an eye, and whosoever, for their defence and protection, is exalted to a place of power and trust by his fellow-citizens, should be as tenacious of them as of his own life's blood. It is not the brilliant character of any particular man, whose light happens to shine most conspicuously in the right use of Christian privileges, that should commend them to his care; neither should the misapplication of them by an unworthy individual detract from their intrinsic value. They arise out of the very principles of the British Constitution, which, in Church and State, is founded on the basis of revealed religion.

It is the beauty of the System, therefore, and not the worth of individuals that commends our Constitution to the care of those intrusted with authority and power. Neither the praise of men, nor the clamour of the people, nor the specious pretexts of visionary reformers should sway the decision of the Magistrate. Actions, not to be seen of men, but to be approved of God,† alone are worthy of a Eph. ii. 12.

*

2 Tim. ii. 15.

*

Christian man in office. mutilate or make the Laws. His example has great influence, and it ought to give a tone to public feeling by his reverence for the established religion and law of the land. All the power vested in the Chief Magistrate should be openly ascribed to God. For them that honour me, I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed, saith the Lord. On all public and private occasions, the Church which God has planted in the Constitution should be avouched as the Tower of its strength; because this being the source of our highest privileges, it is obvious that sound principles of religion in their guardians, and next to these, attention to things that have happened for ensamples,† and to the caution of the wisest of men, not to meddle with them that are given to change, will be their best security.

He is to administer, and not to

Think not, my Christian brethren, our Saviour's warning against the delusive cry, Lo here is Christ, lo there! was intended only for the first disciples. From the time of Montanus (towards the close of the Second century) "before popery had a beginning, or Christianity an establishment," throughout the era of the Roman Church, even to this present day, a similarity may be traced as well in the pretensions of enthusiasts, zealous for reform, as in the injury done to true religion by their want of knowledge, and indiscretion or extravagance.

The rigid absolutism of perfection designed by the Montanists for the Church of Christ, prepared the way for the looseness of Mahomedanism. St. Dominic's field "preaching friars," designed for the suppression of all heresy, ended in the Inquisition-that abominable device for strangling the liberty wherewith Christ has made us

* 1 Sam. ii. 30. Lavington page 1.

† 1 Cor. x. 11.

Prov. xxiv. 21.

|| Vide Dr. Lee's Hist. of Montanism.