country? Was it not, that that religion was so modified, as equally to endear itself to the vivid sensibility of youth, the quick intelligence of manhood, the matured reflection of age and wisdom? That it did not, on the one hand, conceal the beauty and weaken the strength of vital truth, by cumbrous and unnecessary adjuncts; nor, on the other hand, withhold from it that graceful drapery, without which, in almost all instances, the imagination, as it were instinctively, refuses to perform its appropriate function of conveying truth to the heart! And, further, have not the above invaluable effects been owing to this also, that the inherent spirit of Christian tolerance, (which has been described as distinguishing our communion from every other national communion in the world,) by allowing to their minds every just claim, has taken the best possible method of preventing intellectual licentiousness? In fine, to what other causes than those just stated, can we ascribe it, that this country, above all others, has been the seat of philosophy, unbounded in its researches, yet modest in its assumptions, and temperate in its conclusions ?-of literary knowledge, not only patiently pursued, and profoundly explored, but wisely digested, and usefully applied?-of religion, in its most rational, most influential, most Christian shape and character; not the dreary labour of superstition, not the wild delirium of fanaticism, but the infallible guide of reason, the invincible guard of virtue, the enjoyment of present peace, and the assurance of future happiness?

But, whatever providential causes have hitherto contributed among us to restrain infidelity and profaneness, have we no reason to fear, that their operations are growing less and less powerful? And should we not bear in mind, that it is not the form of our church establishment, incomparable as that

is, which can alone arrest the progress of danger, if there should arise any declension of zeal in supporting its best interests, if ever there should be found any lack of knowledge for zeal to work with. The character also of the reigning prince will always have a powerful effect either in retarding or accelerating the evil.

One of our most able writers on history and civil society, is perpetually inculcating, that no political constitution, no laws, no provision made by former ages, can ever secure the actual enjoyment of political happiness and liberty, if there be not a zeal among the living for the furtherance of these objects. Laws will be misconstrued and fall into oblivion, and ancient maxims will be superseded, if the attention of the existing generation be not alive to the subject.

Surely it may be said at least with equal truth, that no excellence of our religious establishment, no orthodoxy in our articles, no, nor even that liturgy on whose excellences we have delighted to expatiate, can secure the maintenance of true religion, but in proportion as the religious spirit is maintained in our clergy-in proportion as it is diffused among the people-in proportion as it is encouraged from the throne.

If such then be the value and such the results of the English ecclesiastical establishment, how high is the destiny of that personage, whom the laws of England recognize as its supreme head on earth! How important is it, that the prince, charged with such an unexampled trust, should feel its weight, should understand its grand peculiarities, and be habitually impressed with its own unparalleled responsibility. To misemploy, in any instance, the prerogative which this trust conveys, is to lessen the stability, and counteract the use* Dr. Adam Ferguson.

fulness of the fairest and most beneficial of all the visible fabrics, erected in this lower world! But what an account would that prince or that minister have to render, who should systematically debase this little less than divine institution, by deliberately consulting, not how the church of England may be kept high in public opinion, influential on public morals, venerable through the meek yet manly wisdom, the unaffected yet unblemished purity, the energetic yet liberal zeal of its clergy;-but, how it may be made subservient to the trivial and temporary intersest of the prevalent party and the passing hour?

Besides the distribution of dignities, and the great indirect influence which this affords the prince in the disposal of a vast body of preferment; his wisdom and tenderness of conscience will be manifested also in the appointment of the chancellor, whose church patronage is immense. And in the discharge of that most important trust, the appointment of the highest dignitaries, the monarch will not forget that his responsibility is proportionably the more awful, because the exercise of his power is less likely to be controlled, and his judgment to be thwarted, than may often happen in the case of his political servants.

Nor will it, it is presumed, be deemed impertitinent to remark, that the just administration of this peculiar power may be reasonably expected as much, we had almost said even more, from a female, than from a monarch of the other sex. The bishops chosen by those three judicious queens, Elizabeth, Mary, and Caroline, were generally remarkable for their piety and learning. And let not the writer be suspected of flattering either the queen or the bishop, by observing, that among the wisdom and abilities which now adorn the bench, a living prelate high in dignity, in talents, and in Christian

virtues, is said to have owed his situation to the discerning piety of her present majesty.*

What an ancient canon, cited by the judicious Hooker, suggests to bishops on the subject of preferment, is equally applicable to kings. "It expressly forbiddeth them to be led by human affection in bestowing the things of God."+

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Superintendence of Providence manifested in the local circumstances, and in the civil and religious history, of England. AMONG the various subjects on which the mind of the royal pupil should be exercised, there is none more appropriate than that which might, perhaps, be most fitly denominated, the providential history of England. That it has not hitherto engaged attention in any degree suitable to its importance, is much more an apology for its being, in the present instance, specially adverted to, than a reason for its being any longer neglected.

The marks of Divine interference, in the general arrangement of states and empires, are rendered so luminous by the rays which scripture prophecy has shed upon them, as to strike every mind, which is at once attentive and candid, with a force not to be resisted. But, while this indisputable truth leads us necessarily to infer that a like superintendence to that which is over the whole, acts likewise respecting all the separate parts; the actual tracing this superintendence, in the occurrences of particular nations, must, in general, be matter of difficulty and doubt, as that light of prophecy, which

* The prelate here complimented was the author's friend Dr. Beilby Porteus, bishop of London, who died in 1809.-ED. The Ecclesiastical Polity.

falls so brightly on the central dome of the temple, cannot reasonably be hoped for when we turn into the lateral recesses.

There are instances, however, in which God's providential works shine so clearly "by their own radiant light," as to demonstrate the hand which fashioned, and the skill which arranged them. And though others are of a more doubtful nature; yet, when the attainments of any one particular nation become matter of general influence, so that what was, at first, the fruit of merely local labour, or the effect of a peculiar combination of local circumstances, becomes, from its obvious utility or intrinsic excellence, an object to other surrounding countries, and grows at length into a universal benefit; in such a distinction, we can hardly forbear to trace something so like a consistent plan of operations, that the duty of observing and acknowledging it seems incumbent on such communities as appear to have been thus signally favoured. What advantage, for instance, has the whole civilized world derived from the philosophizing turn of the ancient Greeks? How widely extensive, and how durable, has been its influence !

Of what importance are the benefits which the politic spirit of the Roman empire diffused amongst the countries of Europe, most of which, to this day, acknowledge the hand which reared them from barbarism, by still retaining those laws which that hand transcribed for them; as if Rome were allowed to do that for men's circumstances, which Greece was permitted to effect for their minds!

But a third instance is encumbered with less difficulty-the designation of Judea to be the local source of true religion. In this small province of the Roman empire, what a scene was transacted, and, from those transactions, what a series of consequences have followed, and what a system of