exerted by self-interest and error, it is, of course, impossible to foretel. Twenty years is probably its utmost limit: it may be shortened-by the folly of "the church," that first stage in the progress of men toward destruction,-or by the outbreaking of popular rebellion. Come it must; and upon the zeal and enlightened devotedness of Christians it depends whether it be speedily in peace, or later in tears and in blood. Dissenters condemn as earnestly as possible the agitation of Ireland, and, in case of an appeal to arms, would be the first to repel such weapons, and to rally round the friends of the constitution; but they regret that they are compelled to lay the evils of that agitation to the charge, not of the nation, nor yet, perhaps, of the government, but of the system, while they should despair of success against a righteous cause, supported by illegal means certainly, but still deserving to be supported by six millions of people.

14. But by what means, it may be asked, is the present system of ecclesiastical establishments to be superseded, and the new system introduced and allowed? Ever, we reply, with a just regard for existent interests, and in the spirit of equity and love. Let a parliamentary committee be appointed to inquire into the value and origin of church wealth;

all that has been left to the protestant established church by private persons is her own; let it remain, therefore, untouched. All that has been given by the prerogative of the ruling monarch, or by the votes of parliament, is the nation's, and has been given subject to the annual sanction of the nation's voice. It is given impiously, unwisely, unjustly; let it, therefore, be withheld, and devoted in no case to any religious sect, but to the general objects of government. All that has been left by Romanists for purposes which protestants condemn, let it be given to such as can alone fulfil the intentions of those that bequeathed it; or, if such intentions entail practices illegal and subversive of government, let it go, as is usual in such cases, to the exchequer ; it is certainly not the property of the protestant church. Then let all state patronage and state influence cease; let the church become one of ourselves, and speedily the sects will return, one by one, into her bosom, or she will rest in theirs, and the millennium will have begun. "The nations shall walk in her light, and kings in the brightness of her rising. . . . The sons of the stranger shall build up her walls, and their kings shall minister unto her: no longer forsaken and hated, she shall be made an everlasting boast-the joy of perpetual generations."

Such shall be the honours and glory of the church when "violence shall no more be heard in her land, wasting nor destruction within her borders." "For brass she shall have gold, and for iron silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron; for her officers shall be peace, and her exactors righteousness." "In her humility all men, with loud hosannas, will confess her greatness."

211

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Note A, p. 5.

THE following extracts from the works of the most eminent men of puritanical times are of some interest, as they explain the views on toleration that were then in vogue. They are taken from a small treatise on Toleration disproved and condemned. By a very moderate Hand. Oxford, 1670.

"I beseech you, therefore, in the name of that great God whom you serve, and who hath hitherto blest you, and for the peace and prosperity of this church and kingdome, to resume and pursue your first thoughts of setting up God and his ordinances as becomes you in a regular way, that our church and the government thereof may be no longer laid waste and exposed to confusion, under the plausible pretence of not forcing men's consciences. To put all men into a course of order and uniformity, in God's way, is not to force the conscience, but to set up God in his due place, and to bring all his people into the paths of righteousnesse and life."-DR. CORN. BURGESSE, Sermon before the House of Commons, 1641.

"In a word: God hath many things amongst us that must be protected and maintained, and the matters of God have many adversaries which must be watched and suppressed; for ye beare not the sword in vaine, ye are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Magistrates and ministers have (as ye see) one common style of office, that ye in the place, and we in our function and order, should mind and promove the things of God;