exemption will not be expected for the Church of England; nor has she any claim. Cranmer, her first martyr, but suffered what he had previously inflicted on some unoffending Baptists: penal laws of great severity are but just repealed: Scotland, too, could tell some bloody tales: but waving all this, the Church has borne her faculties with tolerable meekness. God forbid that some classes of Dissenters should have had her opportunities; nor would I prefer any accusation but of such persecution as no establishment can exist without. A certain portion is essential to its being. This is felt chiefly in privations of what is one's right; as 1. Property : man tills the ground, and from it gets his bread by the sweat of his brow: is not that produce his own? But he should support religion: well, he does so, the religion which he approves; which, though not exalted by the State, has touched his heart, reformed his character, ministered to his consolation, filled him with hopes of immortality, and will he trusts, be the inheritance of his children, and bring them to him in heaven; yet, as if he had done nothing, his tenth is wrung from him by Church-of-Englandism. 2, An honest ambition to be useful is a disposition to be cherished in every good citizen. Talents and principles should be called into action for the public weal, and honourably rewarded. They exist; there is the appropriate sphere for their

exercise; but they are kept out by the exclusive spirit of Church-of-Englandism. 3. This makes a favoured and a degraded class in society; a distinction which is often fatal to friendliness, and poisons charity. In country villages, how many poor Dissenters see their children deprived of education, unless they be also taught a religion they have abjured, by the persecuting spirit of Churchof-Englandism!

Amid these censures, let me render one cordial tribute of praise, and that is to the Liturgy. Making, of course, some doctrinal exceptions, that is indeed Christian. Excluding holy writ, it may challenge competition with the devout productions of all countries and ages. It is a simple, pure, and noble composition. From the bottom of my soul do I admire it, and, as far as my private feelings are concerned, know of no fitter form of words for man to hold communion with his Maker in. Probably much of it has descended from a very early age of Christianity. However that may be, it is worthy of the best days of Christianity. Bred a Dissenter, no early associations prompt this praise. It is the dictate of unbiassed conviction, which, in such a discourse as this, to withhold were uncandid and unjust; like my censures, it is honest and heartfelt.

The Church of England is but a sect, though it may be a fortunate and powerful one. It has

severed itself from the rest of the Christian world, Perhaps the question would not be easy of solution, whether it be properly a Popish or a Protestant sect; (h) for, though claiming to belong to the Protestants, it has generally been scarcely owned by them; and it stopped so far short of even what they did, and retained so much of the principles and spirit of the old superstition, as to be but of ambiguous character. Were we to review its history, the judgment passed in our hasty analysis of its constitution would be abundantly confirmed. It was the creature originally of capricious tyranny, struck out by the passion of Henry VIII., and matured by the Machiavelian policy of Elizabeth. The pride and ill advice of its prelates had their share in bringing Charles to the block; for which atonement is made by his canonization as a martyr, and by a service which makes a Christian blush at its blasphemy, and an Englishman indignant at its servility. In his son's reign was the memorable ejection of the two thousand ministers, who laid the foundation of our churches, and whose only crime was being conscientious. Against the tyranny of Charles II. and James II. no stand was made till it was ascertained that they aimed at Popery as well as tyranny; so that the part taken by this sect in the Revolution was but little to its honour. () From that period, much has been gained to religious liberty; but the State has given it, and not to oppose is the

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highest merit which can be claimed for the Church. Now are these altogether the lineaments of pure Christianity? Some things may be good; but what would one of the first converts, raised from the dead, say on beholding the whole? “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?"

To conclude: designing men, even in the present day, have dared to represent dissent from the Church as synonymous with disaffection to the State. It is a foul calumny. The sternest and sturdiest protest against the one, may coexist with the most enthusiastic devotion to the other. England was great and glorious while her religion was Popery. She then reared her head above the nations, outstripped them all in the career of improvement, and soared above them towards the heaven of liberty. The great charter of her freedom was then wrested from unwilling power: commerce and manufactures were raising her citizens, burgesses and merchants, to wealth and intelligence, and placing them side by side with her barons while, from contending elements, arose the harmony of representative government. She was great while that change, called Reformation, was proceeding, or retarded, or subsiding into fixedness, through successive reigns. She then began to wave her flag of sovereignty over the sea; her laws were framed in wisdom; and her literature, splendid in genius, profound in learning, and mighty in originality, advanced with

giant step. She was great at that tremendous period when the crown was trampled in the dust, a regal head fell on the scaffold, and Cromwell sat on an ungarnished throne. Episcopacy was not her religion then. The Church of England fled to the wilderness: the mitre was crushed under sectarian feet, and the crosier snapped asunder by unconsecrated hands: yet then she was great; not a nation but cringed for her friendship, and trembled at her frown. Was there persecution, oppression, or insult, on the Continent, -she lifted her voice of thunder, and Europe's hills were moved; her mountains quaked and trembled to their foundations. And while Episco

has been Church-of-Englandism, our country pacy has been great and glorious still; -yes, through vicissitude, great in adversity and disappointment, in privation and suffering, in all changes and chances, in arms and arts, in literature and benevolence. The monuments of her majesty reflect the glittering of every star of heaven; and not a wind can blow that has not wafted from her shores some freight of charity. And she would be great, were this assuming sect lost in oblivion, with all its robes, and forms, and wealth, and creeds still to her would the nations look, as to an elder sister of the earth, pre-eminent in wisdom, grace, and majesty.

Yes; England, independently of adventitious circumstances, or predominant sects, must be