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over them like so many wolves, ready to catch the lambs so soon as they were brought forth into the world); how signally that business was trodden under foot in Parlia ment, to the discountenancing of the honest people, "and the countenancing of the malignant party, of this 66 commonwealth!"

Next to its union with Christ, the great essential for a church is its position with regard to the christian people, its intimate and constant connexion with souls, for the field is the world. Nothing can be more lamentable than for the Church to forget this, and to make its position with respect to the State the material point. It will imagine that it has done its duty, if it preserves the State in a rigid orthodoxy. But of what consequence is it that parliament should be the champion of Protestantism, if true Protestantism, the spiritual and christian life, is found no longer among the people? A church may then appear brilliant and flourishing from afar, but he that hath the seven Spirits of God will address it in these words: Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

To sum up all in a few words: a national church is secure only when, far from boasting of its union with the state, it places no confidence in the guarantees given it by the constitution, and looks for its life and prosperity solely in union with its Head, in the strength that the Spirit and the Word of God should develop in it, and in the free and energetic exercise of the intellectual, spiritual, and moral forces of each of its members and of the whole community. This is a useful lesson for the times present.

Cromwell went very far in religious liberty, but still not far enough. He did wrong in transferring his patronage from episcopacy to the independents. Had he left all sects free, without protection as without restraint,—had evangelical episcopacy, in particular, been able to move freely, religion would have been developed with more simplicity, and would probably have escaped that narrow mannerism, that cant with which it has been reproached, sometimes perhaps with reason, by men of the world. Puritanism would have exercised a vivifying influence on the episcopal religion; and the episcopal religion would

have had a regulating and moderating influence on puritanism.

Yet Oliver accomplished an immense work for his times; and England should now raise to him a monument, a triumphal arch with this inscription,

TO THE FOUNDER OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

We submit this to the consideration of those who have earnestly taken to heart Canning's motto and Cromwell's work.

CHAPTER XI.

MORALITY, GLORY, AND ANTIPOPERY OF ENGLAND.

The State-Principal Duty-The Glory of England-Cromwell's Court-Its Decency-Morality-Triumphs of Great BritainBlake at Malaga-Commerce-Patronage of literary Men-Justice -Opposition to Spain-Antipopery-Consequences if the Stuarts had triumphed-Cromwell's Name-The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

To Cromwell the State was a divine institution, the maintaining and governing of which belonged supremely to God. He would not, like certain parties, look upon it as a purely human society. He did not think that it was based simply on terrestrial facts, such as conquests, treaties, and constitutions. He was not indeed blind to the influence of these things, but over all, according to his views, the intervention of the Deity was to be recognised.

In some of his applications of this principle he went too far. The State is an institution against iniquity. The prince is the minister of God to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. In this respect, we may believe that the civil power and the Church have regard to the same object, since Christ, the Head of the Church, came into the world to take away sin. But that resistance to evil, which characterizes the Church and the State alike, must be accomplished in two different ways. It is by very dissimilar and by very opposite means that these great societies attain the end they have in view. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. This is the means whereby the Church suppresses evil and in this there is no connexion with that constraint and with that sword which a ruler beareth not in vain.

From these paths, so different and so distinct, laid down for each of these societies, there results a rule which is too frequently overlooked. The State should be careful not to aim at producing what is beyond its function: the Church should not presume to do that from which it ought to abstain. As in the State it is necessary to keep the legislative, judicial, and executive powers distinct, that all may go on harmoniously; so, in the nation, we must distinguish between the sphere of the Church and of the State, that the people may be happy and prosperous. We cannot deny that Oliver seems occasionally to have gone too far, as a political chief, in matters of religion.

But there is one point which he saw very clearly, and in regard to which his notions were true,......the prosperity and power of a nation are based essentially on its morality and on its faith. He understood more distinctly perhaps than any other ruler, that no country can exist and flourish unless it have within itself some principle of life. We are beginning to see in our own times what happens to the nations that pretend to go on without Christianity, and when for the spiritual and edifying influence of the Gospel are substituted the mummeries of superstition, or that sterile wind which blows over the deserts of incredulity.

He had, indeed, other passions not less noble than that of religious liberty. The greatness, prosperity, and glory of England was a no less potent necessity in him, and he worthily acted up to it. He said one day in council: "I hope to make the name of an Englishman as great as (( ever that of a Roman has been." And in effect he so augmented the general resources and maritime power of the nation, that he procured for it a more extensive European celebrity and influence than it had ever possessed under any of its kings.

But the Protector knew that righteousness exalteth a nation, and it was by this means he desired to elevate his own. God himself spoke to the people. We find in the official papers of the time such notices as the following:September 13, 1654. His Highness the Lord-Protector kept a fast this day privately with his own family at Whitehall.-April 5, 1655. His Highness having notice

of a quarrel that was like to produce a duel between the Earl of Middlesex and one Mr Seymour, sent for them, and accepted their engaging not to prosecute the quarrel any further.-May 2, 1656. His Highness and the council spent the day in private prayer and fasting to seek a blessing from God upon our affairs and forces.

The army was subjected to an admirable moral discipline, which, with the piety that animated most of the officers and soldiers, concurred in keeping up a purity of manners till then unknown, especially in the garrison and in the camp.

The same morality prevailed at the Protector's court. Everything was becoming and honourable; everything in strong contrast with the levity and debauchery that surrounded the unfortunate son of Charles I. in a foreign country, and of which the catholic court of France erelong presented so deplorable an example.

"Cromwell's court was free from vice," says Doctor Harris. "All there had an air of sobriety and decency; "nothing of riot or debauch was seen or heard of." Cromwell even went too far, if we may credit this author. And, in truth, if it is an evil to exclude religious men from public employments, as has been sometimes done, it is also an evil to make religion essential to a good reception at court. By this a risk is incurred of favouring hypocrisy, and that is a danger which pious princes, even in our own age, have not been able to avoid. "Whereas formerly," says the same writer," it was very difficult to live at court without a prejudice to religion, it was now impossible to be a "courtier without it. Whosoever looks now to get pre"ferment at court, religion must be brought with him "instead of money for a place."

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But if it is dangerous for a prince to grant distinctions to a religious profession, it is on the contrary his duty to prefer moral men to those whose conduct is reprehensible. He that loveth pureness of heart, the king shall be his friend, says Solomon (Prov. xxii. 11). "His own court," says Doctor Bates, who, at the Restoration, became one of the defamers of Oliver's memory, "was regulated according to 66 a severe discipline; here no drunkard, nor whoremaster,