patrons, and fupplying the duty by indigent ftipendaries.

5. General bonds of refignation, that is, bonds to refign upon demand.

I doubt not but that the oath is binding upon the confciences of those who take it, though I queftion much the expediency of requiring it. It is very fit to debar public patrons, fuch as the king, the lord chancellor, bishops, ecclefiaftical corporations, and the like, from this kind of traffic; becaufe, from them may be expected fome regard to the qualifications of the perfons whom they promote. But the oath lays a fnare for the integrity of the clergy; and I do not perceive, that the requiring of it, in cafes of private patronage, produces any good effect, fufficient to compenfate for this danger.

Where advowfons are holden along with manors, or other principal eftates, it would be an eafy regulation to forbid that they fhould ever hereafter be separated; and would, at leaft, keep church preferment out of the hands of brokers.

CHAF

CHA P. XXI.

OATHS TO OBSERVE LOCAL STATUTES.

MEMBERS. of colleges in the univerfities, and

of other ancient foundations, are required to fwear to the observance of their refpective ftatutes; which obfervance is become in fome cafes unlawful, in others impracticable, in others inconvenient.

Unlawful directions are countermanded by the authority which made them unlawful.

Impracticable directions are difpenfed with by the neceffity of the cafe.

The only queftion is, how far the members of thefe focieties may take upon themfelves to judge of the inconveniency of any particular direction, and make that a reason for laying afide the observation of it.

The animus imponentis, which is the meafure of the juror's duty, feems to be fatisfied, when nothing is omitted, but what, from fome change in the circumftances under which it was prefcribed, it may fairly be prefumed that the founder himself would have dispensed with.

To bring a cafe within this rule, the inconveniency muft,

1. Be manifeft; concerning which there is no doubt.

2. It must arise from fome change in the circumftances of the inftitution; for let the inconveniency be what it will, if it exifted at the time of the foundation, it must be prefumed, that the founder did not deem the avoiding of it of fufficient importance to alter his plan.

3. The direction of the ftatute muft not only be inconvenient in the general, for fo may the inftitu

tion

tion itself be, but prejudicial to the particular end proposed by the inftitution; for it is this laft circumftance which proves that the founder would have dispensed with it in pursuance of his own purpose.

The ftatutes of fome colleges forbid the speaking of any language but Latin, within the walls of the college; direct that a certain number, and not fewer than that number, be allowed the ufe of an apartment amongst them; that fo many hours of each day be employed in public exercifes, lectures, or difputations; and fome other articles of difcipline adapted to the tender years of the ftudents, who in former times reforted to univerfities. Were colleges to retain fuch rules, nobody now-a-days would come near them. They are laid afide therefore, though parts of the ftatutes, and as fuch included within the oath, not merely because they are inconvenient, but because there is fufficient reafon to believe, that the founders themselves would have difpenfed with them, as fubverfive of their own defigns.

сн

С НА Р. XXII.

SUBSCRIPTION TO ARTICLES OF RELIGION.

SUB

UBSCRIPTION to Articles of Religion, though no more than a declaration of the fubfcriber's affent, may properly enough be confidered in connection with the fubject of oaths, becaufe it is governed by the fame rule of interpretation:

Which rule is the animus imponentis.

The inquiry therefore concerning fubfcription will be, quis impofuit, et quo animo.

The bishop who receives the fubfcription, is not the impofer, any more than the cryer of a court, who adminifters the oath to the jury and witneffes, is the person that impofes it; nor confequently is the private opinion or interpretation of the bishop of any fignification to the subscriber, one way or other.

The compilers of the thirty-nine articles are not to be confidered as the impofers of fubfcription, any more than the framer or drawer up of a law is the person that enacts it.

The legislature of the 13th Eliz. is the impofer, whose intention the fubfcriber is bound to fatisfy.

They who contend, that nothing lefs can juftify fubfcription to the thirty-nine articles, than the actual belief of each and every feparate propofition contained in them, muft fuppofe, that the legiflature expected the consent of ten thousand men, and that in perpetual fucceffion, not to one controverted propofition, but to many hundreds. It is difficult to conceive how this could be expected by any, who obferved the incurable diverfity of human opinion upon all fubjects fhort of demonftration.

If the authors of the law did not intend this, what did they intend?

They

They intended to exclude from offices in the church,

1. All abettors of

popery.

་

2. Anabaptifts, who were at that time a powerful party on the continent.

3. The Puritans, who were hoftile to an epifcopal conftitution; and in general the members of fuch leading fects or foreign eftablishments, as threatened

to overturn our own.

Whoever finds himself comprehended within these defcriptions ought not to fubfcribe,

During the prefent ftate of ecclefiaftical patronage, in which private individuals are permitted to impofe teachers upon parishes, with which they are often little or not at all connected, fome limitation of the patron's choice may be neceffary, to prevent unedifying contentions between neighbouring teachers, or between the teachers and their refpective congregati

ons.

But this danger, if it exift, may be provided against with equal effect, by converting the articles of faith into articles of peace.

CHAP