CHAPTER V.

O my God, make them like unto a wheel, and as the stubble before the wind ;-Who say, let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.-Psalm lxxxiii. 13, 12. Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ?-ROM. ii. 22.

If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the LORD hath not sent me.-NUMB. xvi. 29.

It happened that on the following day Col. Abberley and his son rode over to Teynton Park. It was the first time that they had visited Sir John Morley, since his determination had been known, and the conversation naturally turned on the subject.

Sir John," said the Colonel, "I am sure, we at Ayton cannot sufficiently thank you for your munificent design of giving us a church there. I can assure you it is hardly anywhere wanted more. As we pass through the village on Sundays, we see the men lounging about with their pipes in their mouths, the women setting their houses to rights, the wretched children screaming and playing about the street, just as if they were not in a Christian land. I speak

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within bounds, when I say that not a dozen attend any place of worship whatever."

"It is a sad example," observed Lady Morley, "of what I have frequently heard remarked; that wherever the Church exercises no influence at all,

cannot be sup

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and consequently, as not existing, planted, the dissenters are never to be found. where the Church's influence is small, so that a successful rivalry can be set up, there they swarm.”

"We have certainly no dissenting place of worship at Ayton," replied Col. Abberley, "whatever the reason may be. I have often wondered that you should have two here, where you are so well off in the Church. But I hope, Sir John, you will allow others to contribute either to the building fund, or else to the endowment."

"Most willingly, Colonel Abberley; and with the greater pleasure, because the funds which I am able at this moment to appropriate to it, will be barely sufficient for both. But I must request it as a favour, that you will not speak of the thing as an act of charity, but of simple justice. I feel that I have, for many years past, been appropriating to myself, property to which I have no right: and having thus, in a certain sense, been committing robbery on the Church, the least I can do is to restore that which I have, though in ignorance or inadvertence, appropriated."

"I am sure, Sir John, your intention throughout the whole matter is so praiseworthy, that every one

is bound to respect your scruples; though I will frankly tell you—and I am sure you will excuse my liberty, for I am really speaking as a friend-that I consider them misplaced, or at least excessively overstrained. And, from what I can learn, the sentiments of the neighbourhood coincide with my own. You know we have several lay rectors around us: it was only yesterday that Mr. Suttley, of Otterbourne, was speaking to me on the subject, and he seemed quite indignant at the reflection, which, as he thought, you had cast on him. I merely mention this, by way of proving that you have certainly done an unpopular thing, and one of which the opposite party will not fail to take advantage in contesting the county."

"To tell you the truth, Col. Abberley, in acting as I have done, the consequences by implication did not occur to me. But if they had, they could have had no possible influence on my conduct; because I only acted out of a principle of duty. I am, of course, sorry, that any one should impute wrong motives to me; I only wish that I could persuade my neighbours to follow my example.”

"But now, Sir John, seriously speaking, you cannot mean to assert that all landed proprietors, who possess property which was once the Church's, are bound at once to surrender it to the Church again."

"If it has not been in the first instance fairly purchased from the Church, you mean: yes; I have

no doubt as to what line of conduct every such landowner ought to pursue."

"But consider, in what inextricable confusion many estates would be plunged! How few families are there, who in some one branch or other were not enriched by Church plunder at the Reformation! According to your system, it would be necessary first to examine what grants were made of abbey lands by Henry VIII. to your family at that time. A hundred to one, most country families would find that some part of their property came under this category. But supposing they were fortunate enough to escape this danger; then we have to trace what estates have been acquired since, by purchase or otherwise; and whether they ever belonged to any of the dissolved religious houses. Because, if So, it cannot matter through whose hands they have since passed; they are yours, they were the Church's, and you must therefore give them up."

"I quite agree with you," said Sir John. "I think every conscientious landowner ought to make such an enquiry as you have mentioned. You will not however find many country families in possession of Church estates, granted to their ancestors by Henry VIII and that for the very sufficient reason, that hardly any such families now exist."

"You do not mean that their failure in so long a period of years has at all arisen from their connexion with this property? What a triumphant argument do you put into the mouths of Romanists!"

"Let us take care, Col. Abberley, that we do not give them a real ground against us, by defending, and upholding, and thus making ourselves partake in the sins of the Reformation. We have, in itself, a good cause: why weaken it, if not ruin it, by apologising for what admits of no apology. You would not act so in your own profession: you would be forced to confess, that a general, defending an indefensible post, deserves death by the universally allowed laws of war."

"But only consider what this leads to. You allow that monasteries were excellent institutions : that the spirit of the Reformation was a bad one: that the Church has been implicated in the sin of sacrilege ever since, and to all human likelihood, will be implicated in it to the end of the world. Now

what is the fact? We know from good authority that the state of the monasteries was awful-they were the hot-beds of all kinds of iniquity—they were founded out of false and superstitious motives, and were the chief means of keeping the land in the darkness and ignorance of popery."

"Let us allow for a moment that monasteries were such as you represent them. Their abuse did not render them less dedicated to GOD. Grant that they were founded on mistaken motives -that cannot render them profane. We have a most remarkable instance of this in the Holy Scriptures themselves. Who can imagine a case in which we should have thought a dedication to GOD to be null and void,