it sends three, and one ruling elder; if it contains between eightteen and twenty-four ministers, it sends four ministers, and two ruling elders; but if the presbytery has twenty-four ministers, it sends five ministers and two ruling elders, every royal burgh sends one ruling elder, and Edinburgh two; whose election must be attested by the respective kirk sessions of their own burghs. Every university sends one commissioner, usually a minister of their own body. These commissioners are chosen yearly, six weeks before the meeting of the assembly. The ruling elders are often of the first quality of the country.

The king presides by his commissioner (who is always a nobleman,) in this assembly, which meets once a year; but he has no voice in their deliberations. The order of their proceedings is regular, though the number of members often creates confusion, which the moderator, who is chosen by them to be as it were speaker of the house, has not sufficient authority to prevent. Appeals are brought from all the other ecclesiastical courts in Scotland to the General assembly; and no appeal lies from its determination in religious matters.

Provincial synods are next in authority to the general assembly. They are composed of a number of adjacent presbyteries, over whom they have a power, and there are fifteen of them in Scotland; but their acts are reversible by the general assembly.

Subordinate to the synods, are presbyteries, sixty-nine of which are in Scotland, each consisting of a number of contiguous parishes. The ministers of these parishes, with one ruling elder, chosen half-yearly out of every session, composes a presbytery. These presbyteries meet in the head town of that division; but have no jurisdiction beyond their own bounds, though within these they have cognizance of all ecclesiastical causes and matters. A chief part of their business is the ordination of candididates for livings, in which they are regular and solemn. The patron of a living is bound to nominate or present in six months after a vacancy, otherwise the presbytery fills the place jure de voluto; but that privilege does not hold in royal burghs.

A kirk session is the lowest ecclesiastical judicatory in Scotland, and its authority does not extend beyond its own parish. The members consist of the ministers, elders and deacons. The deacons are laymen, and act pretty much as church wardens do in England, by having the superintendency of the poor, and taking care of other parochial affairs. The elder, or, as he is called, the ruling elder, is a place of great parochial trust, and he is generally a lay person of quality or interest in the parish. They are supposed to act in a kind of co-ordinancy with the minister, and to be assistants to him in many of his clerical duties, particu

larly in catechising, visiting the sick and at the communion table. The office of ministers, or preaching presbyters, includes the offices of deacons and ruling elders, they alone can preach, administer the sacraments, catechise, pronounce church censures, ordain deacons and ruling-elders, assist at the imposition of hands upon other ministers, and moderate or preside in all ecclesiastical judicatories.

It has already been observed, that the established religion of Scotland is presbyterian; that it formerly was of a rigid nature, and partook of all the austerities of Calvinism, and of too much of the intolerance of popery, but at present it is mild and gentle, and the sermons and other theological writings of many of the modern Scotch divines are equally distinguished by good sense and moderation. It is to be wished, however, that this moderation was not too often interrupted by the fanaticism, not only of lay seceders, but of regular ministers. These are industrious to fix upon the absurdities of former divines and visionaries, and ecclesiastical ordinances and discipline, which were supposed to be incompatible with the nature of government. A vast number of these seceding congregations are to be found in the Lowlands. They maintain their own preachers, though scarcely any two congregations agree, either in principle or practice, with the other. We do not, however, find that they fly in the face of the civil power, or at least the instances are rare and inconsiderable; and, perhaps, many of these secessions are lawful, or to be jus tified on account of the great abuses of patronage, by which many parishes have unworthy or incapable ministers imposed upon them, as is the case in many places in England.

A different sect of dissenters, in Scotland, exist of the Episcopalians, a few Quakers, many Baptists, and other sectaries, who are denominated from their preachers. Episcopacy, from the time of the reformation in 1660, to that of the revolution in 1788, was the established church of Scotland; and would proba bly have continued so, had not the bishops, who were, in general, very weak men, and creatures of the Duke of York, afterwards James VII. and II., refused to recognize king William's title.The partizans of that unhappy prince retained the Episcopal religion, and king William's government was rendered so unpopular in Scotland, that in queen Anne's time, the Episcopalians were more numerous in some parts than the Presbyterians; and their meetings which they held under the act of toleration were as well attended. A Scotch Episcopalian becoming another name for a Jacobite, they received some checks after the rebellion in 1715; but they recovered themselves so well, that at the breaking out of the rebellion in 1755, they became again numerous,

after which the government found means to invalidate the acts of their clerical order. Their meetings however still subsist, but thinly. In the mean while, the decline of the non-jurors iз far from having suppressed episcopacy in Scotland; the English bishops supply them with clergy qualified according to law, whose chapels are chiefly filled by the English and such Scotch hearers of that persuasion as have places under the government. The defection of some great families from the cause of popery, and the extinction of others, have rendered its votaries inconsiderable in Scotland. They are chiefly confined to the northern parts and the islands; and though a violent opposition was lately raised against them, fearing their liberties were about to be enlarged, they appear to be as quiet and inoffensive as protestant subjects. Scotland during the time of episcopacy contained two archbishopricks, St. Andrews and Glasgow; and twelve bishopricks, Edinburgh, Dunkel, Aberdeen, Murray, Brechin, Dunblain, Roth, Caithness, Orkney, Galloway, Argyle, and the Isles.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

ENGLAND.

EUSEBIUS, and other ancient writers, positively assert, that Christianity was first preached in South Britain by the Apostles and their disciples; and it is reasonable to suppose, that the success of the Romans opened a highway for the triumphs of the Gospel of peace. It is certain also, that many of the soldiers and officers in the Roman armies were Christians; and as their legions were repeatedly sent over to England to extend as well as preserve their conquests, it is probable that thus Christianity was diffused among the natives. If any of the Apostles visited this country and our heathen ancestors, it was St. Paul, whose zeal, diligence, and fortitude were abundant. But who was the first preacher, or the precise year and period, the want of records leave us at a loss; and all the traditions about Joseph of Arimathea and St. Peter's preaching the Gospel in Britain, and Simon Zelots suffering martyrdom here, are romantic fables, monkish legends. We have good authority to say that, about the year 150, a great number of persons professed the Christian faith here, and according to archbishop Usher, in the year 182, there was a school of learning to provide the British churches with proper teachers; and from that period it seems as if Christianity advanced its benign and salutary influences among the in

habitants in their several districts. It is not necessary to repeat what has been said in the introduction respecting the rise and fall of the church of Rome in Europe. I shall observe in this place that John Wickliffe, an Englishman, educated at Oxford in the reign of Edward III. has the honour of being the first person in Europe who publicly called in question, and boldly refuted those doctrines which had passed for certain during so many ages. The constitution of the church is Episcopal, and it is governed by bishops, whose benefices were converted by the Norman conqueror into temporal baronies, in right of which every bishop has a seat and a vote in the house of peers. The benefices of the inferior clergy are now freehold, but in many places their tithes are appropriated in favour of the laity. The œconomy of the church of England has been accused for the inequality of its livings; some of them extend from three hundred to fourteen hundred a year, and many, particularly in Wales, being too small to maintain a clergyman, especially if he has a family, with any tolerable decency; but seems not easily to be remedied, unless the dignified clergy could adopt and support the reforming scheme. The crown, as well as private persons, has done great things towards the augmentation of poor livings.

The dignitaries of the church of England, such as deans, prebendaries, and the like, have generally large incomes, some of them exceeding in value those of bishopricks, for which the revenue of a rich deanery, or other livings are often annexed to a poor bishoprick. At present, the clergy of the church of England, as to temporal matters are in a most flourishing situation, because the value of their tithes increase with the improvement of lands, which of late has been amazing in England. The sovereigns of England, ever since the reign of Henry VIII. have been called in public writs, the supreme head of the church; but this title conveys no spiritual meaning; as it only denotes the regal power, to prevent any ecclesiastical differences, or, in other words to substitute the king in place of the pope before the reformation, with regard to temporalities, and the internal œconomy of the church. The kings of England never intermeddle in ecclesiastical disputes unless by preventing the convocation from sitting to agitate them, and are contented to give a sanction to the legal rights of the clergy.

The church of England, under this description of the monarchial power over it, is governed by two archbishops and twentyfour bishops, besides the bishop of Sodor and Man, who not being possessed of an English barony, does not sit in the house of peers, the two archbishops are those of Canterbury and York, who are dignified with the address of Your Grace. The former

is the peer of the realm, as well as metropolitan of the English church. He takes precedence, next to the royal family, of all dukes and officers of state. He is enabled to hold ecclesiastical courts upon all affairs that were cognizable in the court of Rome, when not repugnant to the law of God, or the king's prerogative. He has the privilege consequently of granting, in certain cases licences and dispensations, together with the probate of wills; when the party dying is worth upwards of five pounds. Besides his own diocess, he has under him the Bishops of London, Worcester, Ely, Lincoln, Rochester, Litchfield, and Coventry, Hereford, Winchester, Bath, and Wells, Salisbury, Exeter, Chichester, Norwich, Glouster, Oxford, Petersburgh, Bristol, and, in Wales, St. Davids, Landaff, St. Asaph, and Bangor,

The archbishop of Canterbury has by the constitution and laws of England, such extensive powers, that ever since the death of archbishop Laud, the government of England has chiefly thought proper to raise to that dignity men of very moderate principles; but they have been of considerable learning and abilities. This practice has been attended with excellent effects with regard to the publick tranquility of the church, and conséquently of the state. The archbishop of York takes place of dukes not of the blood royal, and all officers of state, the lord chancellor excepted. He has in his province, beside his own diocess, the bishops of Durham, Carlisle, Chester, and Sodor and Man. In Northumberland, he has the power of a palatine, and jurisdiction in all criminal proceedings.

The bishops are addressed by the appellation of Your Lordship, styled Right Reverend Fathers in God, and take the precedence of all temporal barons. They have all the privileges of peers; and the bishopricks of London, Winchester, Durham, Salisbury, Ely, and Lincoln, require additional revenues to support their prelates in the rank of noblemen. English bishops are to examine and ordain priests and deacons, to consecrate churches and burying places, and to administer the right of confirmation. Their jurisdiction relates to the probation of wills, to grant administration of goods to such as die intestate; to take care of per ishable goods when no one will administer; to collate to benefices; to grant institutions to livings; to defend the liberties of the church; and to visit their own diocess once in three years.

Deans and prebendaries of cathedrals have already been mentioned; but it would perhaps be difficult to assign their utility in the church, father than to add to the pomp of worship, and to make provision for clergymen of eminence and merit; but interest often prevails over merit in the appointment. England contains sixty arch deacons, whose office is to visit the churches twice