A CHARGE, &c. &c.

Іть IT has always been my endeavour, my Reverend Brethren, on the now many occasions when it has pleased God to allow us to meet, for purposes, I trust, of mutual benefit, to direct your attention to such subjects as offered peculiar ground for gratitude, apprehension, or caution. Numerous are the blessings we are yet suffered to enjoy- great are the dangers with which we are threatened; and difficulties in the right performance of the various duties of our sacred order seem to increase. General irreligion and avowed depravity, I need not again repeat, characterize the present age; and bitter are the fruits they produce. But may we not gratefully hope, that the recent establishment of a system of national education, under the sanction of the highest authorities, in this kingdom, not only proves the value of religious principle to be rising in public estimation, but also provides a remedy for the evils universally felt from its decay. To you, I am confident, it is needless to point out the particular advantages of this plan to the community at large, as diffusing knowledge under the guidance of religious teachers, as promoting order, unanimity, and happiness; or to recommend to your most zealous care a measure so well adapted to draw together again those bands of society which have

been loosened by many lamentable causes. But there is one point of view in which it appears to me so strikingly important at the present moment, that I cannot but consider it as a matter of serious rejoicing to all who are anxious for the preservation of our national faith, and who perceive the various modes by which it is directly and indirectly assailed—I mean the power with which this systematic instruction may be made to operate in support of the Protestant Church, by establishing genuine Christianity in the minds of the rising generation, should the legislature ever be induced to remove those safeguards, which have been hitherto thought necessary for its security. I have never regarded the Roman Catholic Question solely in a political light, because in my judgment it involves in it the safety of the Protestant interest in these kingdoms; and I am persuaded that the severing this question from all religious considerations has greatly increased the number of friends to what is called Catholic emancipation. Under this persuasion, I adverted, in general terms, at the conclusion of my address to you at our last meeting, to the attempt, then recently made, to procure the repeal of the laws which render Papists incapable of holding certain offices and situations of power and trust; and I promised, if life should be spared me, and circumstances should demand it, to enter more fully into the subject upon a future occasion. As the repeated renewal of this attempt since that time has excited additional alarm and anxiety in the minds of persons most sincerely attached to our civil and ecclesiastical constitution, I shall now proceed to inquire into the ground and nature of the disabilities in question, and to point out the danger, which, I cannot but fear, would attend a compliance with the present claims of the Papists.

The principles of a church establishment, and of toleration of those who dissent from the national religion, can scarcely be said to have been thoroughly understood, till the time of the revolution; and perhaps we may go farther, and affirm, that it was impossible to ascertain what regulations would be necessary upon these important points, till the conduct of Papists, living under a ProtesVOL. I. No. II.

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tant establishment, was seen and known. This was a new state of things; and what would be its precise effect, what struggles and what contests might arise among men, whose religious faith was so fundamentally different, was beyond the reach of human foresight. At the revolution, more than a century had elapsed since the reformed religion was established in these kingdoms; and the knowledge of the dangers to which it had been exposed, during that period, from the restless and hostile spirit of those who still adhered to the Church of Rome, enabled the great and wise men, concerned in settling the revolution, to make such provisions, as would secure the Protestant establishment against future attempts of Papists. The laws against Papists were enacted not upon theory, but in consequence of perils and evils actually experienced; of facts and events, the object and tendency of which could not be mistaken. Some of the laws enacted then and soon after, both in England and Ireland, have been repealed; and therefore of them it is unnecessary to take any farther notice. But others are yet in force; and by these laws, Papists are not allowed to sit in Parliament, to fill the great offices of state, to preside in our courts of justice or equity, or to command our army or navy. These are the only disabilities now remaining; and it is material to observe that they do not in the slightest degree infringe the true principles of toleration.

Toleration is a permission, under the authority of law, to every individual to profess the religious opinions which he conceives most consonant to Scripture, and to worship God in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his conscience. Internal faith and external worship comprehend the whole, as far as this subject is concerned, of religious service; and whoever enjoys unrestrained freedom in these two respects, enjoys perfect religious toleration. The question therefore is, whether the laws allow the inhabitants of this country to maintain the doctrines, and exercise the worship, of the Church of Rome. It is well known, that our laws forbid neither the public avowal of the Romish faith, nor the public exercise of the Romish worship. Nay, more; the laws not only permit, but they so far protect, the Romish worship, that they

punish every insult or disturbance which may be offered to those who are engaged in the performance of it. There is, in fact, a regular Popish hierarchy in Ireland, and in some degree in England, of bishops and clergy of all their different orders, who are consecrated, ordained, and appointed to their respective dignities and benefices, and are allowed to pronounce ecclesiastical censures and inflict punishments upon the members of their own church: and all this, without any restriction or interference on the part of our government. So great indeed is the liberality of sentiment which prevails towards Papists, both in public and private, that Parliament has erected, and supports by annual grant, an extensive seminary for the education of Popish priests; and Protestants have 'contributed largely to the erection of Popish chapels in many parts of Ireland. Such is the actual state of toleration, or of something more than toleration, in this kingdom. And it should be remarked, that the language held by the Papists, in their petitions to Parliament, proves their consciousness of possessing religious liberty to the utmost extent, since their application is only for that degree of political power, from which they are at present excluded. The law says to Papists, you may form your own religious opinions, you may exercise your own mode of worship, because these are unalienable rights with which no civil government ought to interfere. But in this, as in every other nation, laws are to be made and to be executed; public offices are to be filled, and their various duties discharged; and into these situations of power and trust you are not to be admitted, because you hold opinions incompatible with the safety of our constitution both in church and state.

If we search into the annals of the civilised world from the remotest antiquity to the present time, we shall find that in all the varied forms of government which have prevailed, there have been institutions of a religious as well as of a political nature. Every national constitution, with perhaps a single exception, has had its religious as well as its political part; and these parts are generally, if not always, so blended and entwined together, that the one cannot be destroyed without imminent danger to the

other. Self-preservation is allowed to be the first law of nature, as far as individuals are concerned; and in every collective body of men, formed into social compact, it is a paramount duty to provide for the protection and preservation of those laws and of that Constitution under which they have agreed to live. These provisions must necessarily be different under different circumstances; but there seems to be one principle applicable to every form of government, namely, that those who are invested with the power over any community should be sincerely attached to the fundamental laws, from which the Constitution derives its essence and character. Protestantism is an essential part of the British Constitution; and therefore the Constitution does not allow the King to be a Papist, because a popish King could not be expected to maintain a Protestant establishment. It is also a principle of our Constitution, that the King should have advisers in the discharge of every part of his royal functions—and is it to be imagined, that Papists would advise measures in support of the cause of protestantism? A similar observation may be applied to the two houses of parliament: would popish peers or popish members of the house of commons enact laws for the security of the Protestant government? Would they not rather repeal the whole protestant code, and make popery again the established religion of the country?

It has been asserted, that because Papists are good soldiers and sailors, they would be honest and faithful ministers of state. This is by no means a necessary inference. We admit that too much cannot be said in praise of the cheerful obedience and undaunted bravery of those of our popish fellow-subjects, who have engaged in the service of their country. But soldiers and sailors are instru ments in the hands of others; they act as they are ordered; and hitherto they have been under the command of men devoted to the King and to the Constitution. It is otherwise with respect to ministers of state. It is their business to direct-to frame lawsand to propose measures of foreign policy and internal government. Whoever is acquainted with the public concerns of this country,