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ably presumed to be the will and institution of God, the author of civil government, and was instituted for purposes of a political, or civil kind. Here, then, is no prostitution, no perversion, of this sacred rite, when the oath is tendered to a man at his entrance upon a post of trust; and, if a needy Jacobite takes it to the pollution of his conscience, himself only can be blamed: the law that ordered it is clear. But can this, in any sense, be said concerning the sacramental test? Hath this been an instrument for the support of civil government in any kingdom of the christian world besides our own? Hath God, the author of civil government, given the least intimation of.. his intending that it should have such a guard? Had Christ, the institutor of this rite, the least intention or design, that it should be thus used and applied, be made an engine and tool of state, an instrument to discriminate between christian and christian, to raise some to posts of power in the kingdoms of this world, and to fix upon others (men equally virtuous) brands of odium and disgiace? Had he not unquestionably a quite contrary design? You know Sir, that he had. Does he look down with pleasure, think you, upon the kingdom and church, where he sees his name and his institutions thus openly violated, perverted, profaned; his priests liking to have it so, approving, espousing, defending the abuse? I own I cannot think it: and, should any man express a fear that this is not the least of those national sins which expose us to the divine displeasure; that it is a public violation of that righteousness and piety which alone can exalt a people; a blemish, a disease, which preys upon the body politic; and if it does not threaten its dissolution, yet greatly impairs its strength; I confess, I could not prove his fears to be weak or superstitious: For, if the church of Corinth was severely chastened for not making a due distinction between

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the sacrament and their common meals, and not eating it as the Lord's supper, I see not but the church of England, may have something also to fear on account of those perversions and prostitutions which, you own, you see with concern;' by which this sacrament is used not only not according to, but directly against its primitive institution; to a purpose, and for an end which quite opposes and subverts one principal design for which our divine master appointed this sacred

rite.

High offices and court employments, I have acknowledged, might be apt to corrupt Dissenters, as every one knows them to have this influence upon the human mind: though, therefore, as a Briton and as a Christian, I wish earnestly the repeal, yet, as a Dissenter, I profess no solicitude about it. "But I ought not then (you say) "so strenuously to plead for their being admitted "to such employments, but to be very solicitous "against it." Review, Sir, in less haste, and you will find, I am so far from pleading strenuously for their admission to such employments, that I have not so 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 disgraceful yoke which the test 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 to refuse posts of trust under the government, and that they may not stand branded and stigmatized before the world as persons incapable and unworthy of such trusts.*

*In the late excellent comment on Warburton's Alliance, &c. the paffage of my second letter, to which this refers, is not only mistaken, but not faithfully and juftly quoted. In the letter it ftands thus, Though I think this law a

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Of our CONSTITUTION in Church and State.

You seem a little displeased at my doubting

"whether the church were an essential and a

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half-part of our constitution? and whether "church and state here in England are so incor"porated and united as that, like the married "pair, they must stand or fall together? And allege, that, in all the conversation as well as "in the writings of Dissenters and others, we read "and hear continually of the ecclesiastical as distinguished from the civil constitution: yea,, " even from the throne and both houses of parliament, we often hear of our constitution in

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"moft unrighteous reftraint upon us, and an undoubted viola❝tion of our natural rights, yet I am far from being perfuaded "that its repeal would be of the leaft fervice to our interest as

Diffenters. I have often doubted whether there is not too "much truth in what you fay, that bigh trufts and court employ❝ments would be extremely apt to corrupt us, and that it would really rather injure than ftrengthen our intereft. I have never, "therefore, as a Diffenter, been at all folicitous for the repeal." Note, This is expreffed only as a doubt, or fufpicion; but the author of that comment hath made it say, in strong, and pofitive terms, (page 123,) "That a repeal of the "Teft and Corporation acts would really be injurious "to the intereft of Protestant Diffenters; or, that I am "perfuaded it would rather injure than strengthen our "interest." Which is giving the paffage a very different

turn.

And, when that gentleman afks, "Is there an abfolute inca"pacity of being virtuous in high ftations?"-I anfwer, no: but if there be a great danger of being vicious, 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 farther afks, "Would any man think his conduct justifiable, "fhould he refuse a large estate merely because of the greater "danger of his being corrupted by it?"-I anfwer, 1. There have been inftances of fuch refufal recorded, and, perhaps, justly, as inftances of heroic virtue. But, 2. To refufe it, when offered, is a thing extremely different from being folicitous to obtain it. Public offices and trusts, when offered by thofe in

"church and state." "* But divest yourself, for a moment, of worldly, attachments, which insensibly warp the mind, and you will see it, I believe to be a very rational doubt; for, our ecclesiastical, however it may be distinguished in common language, is really no other than a civil constitution. It is a system, or frame, contrived, disposed, and enacted by the civil magistrate, as much as the constitution of the treasury, of the army, or of the. courts of Westminsterhall. These all, Sir, have. their constitutions (that is, their several parts of the public business assigned them to dispatch, and their several officers and forms, and methods, of proceeding in them) as really, as truly, and as much, as the church. The army is the constitution and order of the civil magistrate, relating to. the direction of the military force. The treasury. is the constitution and order of the same magistrate relating to the collection and disposal of the public money. The courts of Westminster-hall · are the constitution of the same magistrate for the dispensing of public justice. And the church...

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power, ought not to be refufed by fuch as think themselves capable of rightly difcharging them, becaufe this would be to reject an opportunity of public fervice, to which their country calls them. But this may be done without a folicitude to procure them.

The paffage on which this ingenious author has stepped afide to remark, fpeaks but the very fame fentiment which himfelf has elfewhere, perhaps more strongly expreffed : Comment, &c. page 138. "An indifferency to the honours, riches, and plea "fures of this world, a contempt of and victory over them, is "the independency and fupremacy which the true religion and "church can boaft, the refignation (or lofs) of which must be "infinitely dangerous to her, her poifon, her death wound." Again, page 131. "Though it may be thought I am pleading "for the introduction of Proteftant 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 employed, would their focieties appear "with greater reputation as religious focieties."

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* Letter I. page 11.

II. Defence, pages 9, 10. This I have fully proved in my first letter, to which no reply has been made.

is the constitution and order of the same magistrate relating to the manner in which the public worship is to be performed. The officers in each are all entirely made, instructed, controuled, by the power of the civil magistrate. It is by his authority alone, that they are all qualified and impowered to act in their respective stations; and it is in that manner, and by those rules only, which his wisdom hath prescribed, that, in all their respective offices, they severally proceed.

You cannot therefore deny, that the ecclesiastical is really no other than a branch of the civil constitution; and that what you call the church is in truth no more an essential, much less a half part of our constitution than the treasury, the army, or either of the courts of Westminster-hall. If, therefore, the wisdom of the legislature should think proper to new-form any of these constitu tions, (for instance, the method of dispensing justice in any of our law courts,---which courts, by the way, are all of much longer standing than the constitution of our present church,) would you not smile to hear some zealous gentlemen of the long robe stand forth and insist, that these courts were an essential and a half part of the constitution; and that, therefore, whoever moved for, or so much as wished, an alteration in either of them, could not be safely 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, no doubt, equally smile to hear you thus reasoning as to the church.*

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That the account here given of the nature and constitution of the church of England, agrees with the fentiments of our first reformers, the founders and framers of it, appears from the determination of a felect aflembly of them, convened at Windfor by King Edward VI. by whom (as may be concluded from Archbishop Cranmer's manufcript) it was declared:

"That all Chriftian princes have committed to them, imme diately from God, the whole care of their fubjects, as well

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