was still among them, and they continued to snarl and to bite one another, in spite of all his clement and father-like injunctions. But,

quod optanti Divum promittere nema Auderet, volvenda dies en attulit ultro.

The distemper, after having baffled all the State physicians, at length produced a cure for itself. As the riches of the corporation encreased, so did, in a much greater degree, the avarice and ambition of its managers; till they at last appropriated to themselves the whole of the public stock, to the total exclusion of the christian people, for whom it had been originally intended; excluding them, at the same time, from the right of election, which they established in their own body, now disciplined into a due subordination, with the Bishop of Rome at its head.

This great change in the revenues of the church, was attended with one as great, in its religious concerns. It being now no longer necessary to court the suffrages of the people, no more of that bewildering eloquence was addressed to them and all heresies ceased; for there was now an end of all doctrine. Enquiry, which had been so earnestly recommended by the artful leaders of every faction, was now as universally discouraged; and submission alone recommended in its stead.

A new form of religious worship was introduced, which spared the understandings of the people, and captivated alone their senses and passions. A great number of those persons, male and female, who had distinguished themselves by their labours and sufferings in promoting the interests of the Church, were raised to the rank of divinities, and had temples, statues, and days of worship appointed them. Their lives were written, full of miraculous stories, which were believed, because they were entertaining; and at the same time, under this childish garb, inculcated sentiments extremely favourable to the interests of those who wrote and dispersed them. Pompous processions, choruses, lustrations, and all the superstitious rites of every age and country, especially those of their heathen ancestors, were readily adopted; and being christened, became perfectly christ

ian. The Bible was now in the hands of the clergy only; and metaphysical controversy, which had been, a little while before, the constant occupation of all ranks of men and women, was now confined to a few petulant monks; who, above appealing to the people, wrangled with one another, like the ancient heathen philosophers, in a Latin jargon, which the people neither understood nor desired to understand.

Thus was peace restored to the christian church, and the religion of the magistrate once more established, with a few changes in names only, the very same that it had been under the pontificate of JULIUS CÆSAR. The pontifical title, indeed, took place of the imperatorial; but still the chief magistrate of Rome was the commander of all Europe; whose kings were no better than his lieutenants. In their several dominions he kept garrisons of monks, black, white and gray, upon those possessions which the christian corporation had by various means acquired; whose business it was to keep those petty kings in due obedience; and to forward the tribute which was annually due to their Roman master.

But this night of repose could not last for ever: some of the Pope's own legionaries, in a fit of discontent, mutinied, and appealed to the christian people; discovering to them that charter of their ancient rights, the Bible; which the established hierarchy, in the fulness of their security, had neglected to destroy. The goods of the corporation were now once more to be scrambled for; reasoning, for this purpose, was once more introduced, and Chaos is come again.

No religion which requires an assent to any particular opinions, can ever become a religion for the magistrate. The spirit of civil government is to square the actions of men, by the authority of the laws; that is, by the authority of force, to the exclusion of all private reasoning to the contrary. On the other hand, the spirit of an evangelical religion is to establish the rights of conscience, or private opinion, in matters of opinion, in opposition to all the powers upon earth. A magistrate, therefore, with the bible in one hand, and the sword in the other,

acknowledging his duty to convince, and, at the same time, urging his right to strike, is, of all animals in the creation, the most absurd. Yet from this absurdity were kindled those flames, which, for about two centuries after the Reformation, laid waste Germany, France and England; and which at this time, are in some countries, rather smothered than extinguished.

Not to anticipate what may be more properly introduced into the following sections, I will conclude this with observing, that the government of the christian Church underwent the same changes with the government of ancient Rome, to which it succeeded. For it was first a monarchy, next an aristocracy, then a democracy, which last increased in bulk till it became an anarchy; from that it flourished for some time as a despotism; and at last mouldered away by the defection, one by one, of its provinces. Peace be with them both. Some other empire may arise, more powerful and more extensive than the Roman empire; and some other pontiff may appear more universally revered than the Roman pontiff: but nothing we have ever read of the past, gives us reason to imagine that the city of Rome, or the Popish religion, will ever again be restored to the dominion they have lost.

SECTION VII.

King JAMES the first had transmitted, as it were by blood, to all his descendants of the name of STUART, this most perverse notion, that an uniformity in religion, that is, in certain ceremonies, inseparably attached to certain metaphysical opinions, was absolutely necessary towards the stability of civil government, and the peace of society. Even CHARLES the second, who seems to have made little use of religion in the conduct of his own private affairs, was still persuaded of its being an useful tool in the art of government. Perhaps his brother, more active, as well as more mistaken, might have a considerable share in cherishing this opinion; but, come it from what quarter it will, we see the court, during the reign of CHARLES the second, constantly supporting some religious party against the rest, and never professing an inclination to tolerate, except with a very

E

ill-covered design of rendering the most intolerating religion predominant.

This circumstance, perfectly accidental, while it helped to perplex King CHARLES's affairs, renders it difficult to trace the progressive changes in the constitution of the country during his reign; and to assign to each effect its proper cause.

It is, however, certain, that, notwithstanding the blood which had been shed to restrain the royal prerogative within those bounds, which the real constitution in the beginning of King CHARLES the first's reign had endeavoured to set it; CHARLES the second, by the imbecility of his opposers, was restored to it, in its utmost plenitude; and had reason to believe himself as absolute as Queen ELIZABETH, or HENRY the eighth.

But, though the forms of government, and the legal constitution were the same that they had been under those princes, the real constitution was much altered; and the same causes which had checked the exertion of the ancient royal powers in his father, were still more able to operate against himself. Trade, by being carried on altogether for the private advantage of each trader, is little affected by any change or confusion in government; and while it is capable of languishing under improper regulations, will thrive in the midst of anarchy itself. The great naval armaments fitted out under CROMWELL, give us a very manifest proof how respectable the navigation and foreign commerce of England must have been at that period; and the progress of it is generally believed to have been much forwarded by the famous act of navigation, passed about the same time.

Trade continued to encrease under CHARLES; but as he was no merchant himself, a sufficient share of this national riches did not flow into his pockets, to answer all the demands his favourites made upon them. To raise money, prerogative was no longer a safe instrument; and he was therefore obliged to have recourse to a variety of mean artifices for that purpose, which exposed his insincerity, and discredited him with his people. He either did not know that a great part of the property, and with it a great part of the power of the Commonwealth, was lodged in the hands of the commons; who feeling this their

liberty and property to be their own, would not suffer any part of it to be fraudulently or forcibly taken from them, and without a valuable consideration; or knowing this, he thought, and thought rightly, that to purchase powers from the people, was acknowledging a right in them, very contrary to the system he had been taught: and, if at any time he went into this measure, it was rather as a temporary expedient, and when he was hard pressed for money, than from any settled principle of government.

It appears, however, from several pieces of management in CHARLES and his ministers, that the power of the people was felt and respected by them. The practice of addressing, so favourable to sedition, and so insignificant in the support of government, was now revived, in favour of the court; a practice, by which the most trifling knots of men were authorized irreverently to approach the throne; and to return from thence with new assurances of its weakness, and of their own importance.

In short, after a twenty-four years' reign of shifts and expedients, CHARLES left the constitution of England in a state as undecided as that in which he found it; and as it was taken up by JAMES upon the same political principles, his reign cannot be considered but as a continuation of his brother's.

And here we must observe, that the extreme desire shewn by CHARLES and JAMES to rule without controul, had nothing singular in it. Who is there that chooses to be controuled? What alone distinguished them, in this particular, from other princes, was their constantly employing such improper means to this end, as drew upon them a constant and vigorous opposition; and of course a constant detection of those sentiments, which, by being gratified, would have been, at the same time, less exposed. For although bigotry had a great share in the zeal of JAMES for the introduction of popery, it was not, perhaps, his principal motive. It was equally the cry of his friends and of his enemies, that the establishment of popery would be immediately followed by that of slavery; and he steadily and stupidly pursued the road, which the folly of some, and the malice of others, thus pointed out to him: not considering that the means