The modern Laudeans can fcarce bear the Word Reformation; which their Predeceffors formerly call'd a Deformation. But this Toleration will be for ever odious, because it was introduced by the late King; and Moderation will be always call'd Cant, because it came lately from the Throne. The firft will undermine the Church, the laft will blow it up. The Project of Comprehension, undertook by fome of the beft Clergy in England, muft be call'd a monstrous and villainous Scheme of thefe ecclefiaftical Achitophels, to fill the Church with unhallow'd Pagan Beafts (i. e. Diffenters) instead of Chriflians; but how favourably have these Gentlemen received, and how willing are they to give into, the famous Project of Reconciliation with the Gallican Church? From which they think the Church of England parted but with a thin Veil: But if it be true, that fome French Clergymen have a Mind to meet us, I wish we had them in Exchange for fome of our High-flying Clergy; who are more than inclined to run over to them. And for this Reafon you may believe them, when they fay they would rather be Papifts than Prefbyterians.'

It is well known how they lament the loft Power of the Church, which they apprehend will never be retrieved by a Toleration, or the Hanover Succeffion; we fee how they endeavour to advance their Authority, and to bully us with their Anathema's; we know that fome of them blafphemously repine at the Want of the miraculous Power of the Church in the first Century. How flourishing, fay they, would be the State of the Church, how triumphant here upan Earth, if we had once more the Power to fend our Enemies quick down to Hell!

But God is fo gracious to us, as not now to entrust these high-flying Amballadors with fuch full Powers, confidering that he has given them at present. too little Grace, Mercy and Charity, to manage them. If Sacheverell's Loins were girt with this Flaming Sword; he, who fays, That Princes fhould answer with the Sword, and the Church with Anathema's; it would be doubted whether he would look like an Overfeer fent by the Holy Ghoft, or rather like a deftroying Angel. I will pafs by the fcurrilous Language given to Bishop Grindal, and tell the Doctor one Secret, that if he had lived and fo fcandalized the Hierarchy in baughty Laud's Days, he would infallibly have gotten that indelible Mark on both Sides of his Head, which Mr. Burton had for the very fameCrime, notwithstanding his facred Character. Which ought to make the Doctor to forbear upbraiding the Lords with Fear to punish, because their Mercy was fo un parallel'd as almoft to forgive,

ARTICLE III.

As to the Third Article, the Doftor juftifies the Danger of the Church, and humbly oppofes his fingle Opinion against the general Senfe of the Queen, and the two Houfes of Parliament, and maintains it to their Faces: But denies, that he defign'd to blacken that Vote of Parliament which declared the Church to be out of Danger, by comparing it with the Vote that declared King Charles's Perfon out of Danger; and would avoid, that he intended to infinuate that the Mem⚫bers of both Houfes, who paffed the faid Vote, about the Safety of the Church, were then confpiring the Ruin of the Church.'

* Pages 16, 17.

A

A Vote having paffed in Parliament, declaring the Church out of Danger the Doctor durft not arraign that Vote directly: And yet fome Way muit be found to blacken it.; and no Way was thought fo proper, as to compare it to that Vote which declared King Charles out of Danger; with this Addition of the Doctor's, only to make the Application, that at the fame Time his Murderers were confpiring his Death. This he knew would bring confequential Scandal upon it, and infinuate what was not fafe to affirm exprefly; that the Members of Parliament were contriving the Ruin of the Church, when they voted it out of Danger,becaufe every body knows, that the Parliament which made that Vote about King Charles did confpire his Murder. But the Doctor fays, that they who voted the King's Perfon out of Danger were not the very fame Perfons who contrived his Murder, and therefore he could not make the Infinuation. Tho' the Comparifon fhould not exactly run upon all four when examined, yet the Doctor defign'd to make that Infinuation, by giving juft as much of the Hiftory as ferved for that Purpofe; and if it should be true, that but a Remnant, or a few of that Parliament, which voted the King out of Danger, were the Contrivers of his Murder, yet ftill it will ferve the Doctor's End by way of Comparison; for in Parliamentary Language it was ftill the fame House, and differ'd no more than a thin House from a full one, and therefore it was the fame Houfe, fome Members only abfent, that voted the King out of Danger, and confpired his Murder.

The great Design of the Sermon was to undermine the Queen's Title to the Crown, to afperfe her Adminiftration both in Spirituals and Temporals, and to traduce the late Parliament, and for each Article he has provided a Parallel by way of Illustration. To ftigmatize the Church under the Government of the prefent Bishops, he fays, It is very obvious to draw a Parallel here, betwixt the fad Circumftances of the Church of Corinth formerly, and of the Church of England at prefent; and this is done without Difcouragement, he is fure with Impunity,by our pretended Friends and falfe Brethren;'who the pretended Friends are, which ought to difcourage, and are able to punish Schifms, except those falle Brethren the Bifhops, I don't well know.

To difhonour the laft Parliament, he compares their Vote about the Church, to the Vote of the Rump-Parliament about King Charles's Perfon.

At last, alluding to the prefent Times, he thinks to come home to the Queen by a notable Parallel, when he fays, That though the Ways of Zion may mourn for a Time, and her Gates be defolate, her Priests figh, and the in Bitterness, becaufe ber Adverfaries are Chief, and her Enemies AT PRESENT profper, (AT PRESENT foifted into the Text only to make the Application evident:) This is the Lamentation of the Prophet, when Judab was gone into Captivity, the King in a foreign Country, and an Ufurper upon the Throne. Can any body think that this Gentleman had no ill Intention, though he fwears it, or no Defign at all, as his Managers fay, in fo many Reflections upon the Queen and Ministry, fo a tfully cover'd, and fo methodically digefted into Parallels?

To fhew the Danger of the Church, the Doctor gives us this Character of the prefent Age, For befides that Deluge of Prophanenefs and Immorality, which overfpreads the whole Kingdom; befides the Variety of thofe Schifms, Hete

• rodox

rodox Opinions, and damnable Herefies, which are daily published and propagated among us; I verily believe, that never were the Minifters of Chrift fo abused, and vilified, never was the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures 'fo arraign'd and ridiculed, never were Infidelity and Atheism fo impudent and barefaced, never were fuch horrid Blafphemies printed in any Chriftian State, 'from the Foundation of Chriftianity to this Day.' So much of the Doctor's Speech I'll justify to be his own genuine Product; fo elegantly he always declames, fo honeftly he reprefents, fo charitably he judges of his Neighbours: If a Stranger were to read this, he would be apt to think that there was never a good Man in Great-Britain, befides the pious Doctor Sache verell; fo general is the Deluge of Propbaneness, that he must be the Abraham to intercede for us.

If our Neighbours believe this Man, they must gaze at us in Exp cation of our immediate Deftruction, as a People more abandon'd than ever Sodom was, If Pofterity believes the execrable Report of this Defamer, they'll be ashamed of their Ancestors.

Are not we, even now, confider'd as a Church, the very Pride and Boaft of the Reformation? Are not we, confider'd as a People, the honourable Head of the United Body of Christendom? Yet, Doctor Sacheverell fays, there was never any fuch wicked Chriftian State, from the Foundation of Chriftianity to this • Day."

Is not the Church (thus traduced by this ber Dutiful Son) the main Strength and Bulwark against Popery? When was there greater Care or Piety fhewn for propagating the reform'd Religion, than at this Day? When were our Churches at home better fill'd, or with a greater Appearance of real Devotion? When, or in what Church of the World, were feen fuch large, liberal Charities, as are at this Day for educating poor Children in Religion and Virtue? And tho' Vice and Immorality have been always too prevailing, yet there never was a Time fo proper for the Doctor's Purpose, to charge the Nation with it, as under the Queen's Administration.

Now the Managers have Recourse to the Doctor's Godly Collections, which they call Proofs of the general Corruption of the Nation, in Matters of Religion; and on that Head are brought the abortive Labours of that great Billinfgate Logician Edmund Hick, of that crackbrain'd Projector Afgill, of that poor Poet Gildon, of that atheistical Vagabond Toland, and of that eminent Statesman John Tuchin, lately defunct.

Here the Doctor has learned of Squire Bickerstaff, to engage with the dangerous Shadows of the Church's Enemies, chalk'd out upon the Wall: Are the Writings of these two or three infignificant Fellows, fufficient Grounds for an honest Man to charge a whole Nation with Atheism and Infidelity? But by the Doctor's Logick, all Men are irreligious, because a few are fo: But the Managers against the Doctor fay, that all the Paffages that are quoted in the Collections, to make out the prefent Danger of the Church, prove no new Danger of the Church, fince the paffing of that Vote, which was in 1705, because all those Books were wrote and printed long before 1705, and shew that the Administration has been VOL. III. fo

Kk

*Speech, p. 7.

fo vigilant, that the Books and their Authors have been all cenfured and pu'nish'd.

The good Bifhop of London very juftly profecuted that abominable Brute Hickeringhill, to his Damage of 20,000l. if fuch a Fellow were to be believed: I am apt to think, if the Doctor had known Hickeringbill's Principles before that Profecution, he would have fpared him, as well as the rest of the blafpheming High-flyers; for Hickeringhill was once (in the Doctor's Senfe) a true Son of the Church, as appear'd in that faucy Dialogue he made, between Capt. Edmund Hickeringhill, Rector of All-Saints in Colchester, and his Friend Cornet Compton, Bishop of London. Afgill has been punish'd both in England and Ireland for his Maggot; Gildon is more than half starved by feveral long Imprisonments; and Mr. Blunt has already accounted to God for his Errors. The Obfervator was profecuted in Westminster-Hall, and efcaped the Pillory but by a Miftake of a Figure; and if any Minifter was then lazy, I doubt it will fall upon the then Attorney-General.

The Rights of the Chriftian Church having expofed the Principles of fome of the Clergy, who are for fetting up an Independency in the Church, has juftly incurr'd their Difpleafure; and if the Houfe had not burnt the Book, for one unwary Paffage, the Universities, who have had it long under their Confideration, were refolved to do it for the whole, as foon as they had anfwer'd it. I'confefs I never heard of the anonymous Books in the Collections, and as I had forgot the others, 1 fhould certainly never have known thefe, if the Doctor had not taken this Method to republifh, and perpetuate them in the Record of the Trial.

If the Doctor had been fincere enough to have pointed to the real Danger of the Church, he should not have forgot Mr. Dodwell's Book about the Natural Mortality of the Soul, &c. which has fhock'd the very Foundation of Chriftianity: He is a Gentleman of fuch extraordinary Learning, fuch a Philofopher, fuch an Hiftorian, and fo accurate in Polemical Divinity, that his Writings are of great Authority with the Learned themselves, and unquestioned by the Igno rant. How fatal then must an Atheistical Pofition prove? when advanced, and defended with fo much Plaufibility, and fo many feeming Arguments as that prodigious Man is furnished with. This is attended too by another melancholly Circumftance, that neither the Great South, the Learned Smaldridge, nor the Divine Pen of Atterbury, who fee fo clearly the Church and her Sons in Danger, have in the leaft enlighten'd, or affifted us poor Lay-folks, against so dangerous a Prepoffeffion. What can be. the Reafon of this, but that the zealous Jacobite atones for the dangerous Atheift?'

The fame doubtless is the true Reafon, why fo many fcandalous and obnoxious Paffages in the Books of Leflie, Hicks, and others, have efcaped the Cenfure of the Doctor's Collections: The Compilers of that extraordinary Piece might, almost in every Page of thofe Factious, Turbulent Writers, have found the most virulent Reflections on the whole Body of the Clergy: Taxing them with 'downright Atheism and Infidelity, proftituting their Faith and Confciences for the Hopes of fome temporal Profit or Preferment, and giving up their Flocks and their own Souls to the Men in Power. In thefe Authors they might fee the Supremacyof the Crown turn'd into Ridicule, and abused in the most opprobrious, villainous

Terms:

Terms: They might fee the Reformation expofed and traduced in Terms that even the Papifts would blush to use, and all our firft Reformers reprefented as a Pack of Mercenaries, who would fell the Church for Gold; and fuch. Advances made towards Popery, that even their own Miffionaries durft not barefacedly make fuch forward Steps: But all this, and much more is allow'd, nay approved, in Men foeminently ferviceable to the Pretender..

Next, to prove the Danger of the State, the Doctor produces fome Paffages out of the Obfervator and Review, which reflect upon the Queen, State, and Miniftry. One of thefe Authors has been already pillory'd, and the other very narrowly miss'd it. And if the Queen and the Miniftry were fo happy as to have no other or no more dangerous Enemies, than these two Authors, I would venture to declare the Queen and Government out of Danger. But why was the famous Application forgot here, when the Doctor was collecting the dangerous Writings against the Queen and State? I fear the Doctor was too intimate with the Promoter of that Treasonable Remonftrance, against the Queen's Power of proroguing the Convocation, which illegal Practices produced the fevereft Reprimand to the Lower-Houfe, that ever came out of her Majesty's most gracious Mouth. Do not the Deductions drawn from the Book entitled, The Rights, &c. of the English Convocation, tend to deprive the Queen of her Supremacy? Do not the other Writings of that Author encourage the inferior Clergy to rebell against the Bishops, their Superiors and Governors; and perfuade the whole Body of the Clergy to separate itself from its fupream Head, by infinuating, that the Clergy is independent of the Temporal Power, to the manifeft Invafion of the Queen's Ecclefiaftical Prerogatives? The Queen, who is truly the Nurfing Mother of the Church, feems to be fonder of her Supremacy than of any other Jewel in her Crown; it was with great Difficulties, that our Ancestors wrenched it out of the Hands of ancient Popish Clergy, to place it upon the Heads of our Kings (as too bright for any other) and nothing was able to fix it there, but making it Capital to deny it: And now fome of our Modern Clergy are endeavouring flily to steal it back again,while others lay violent Hands upon it.

ARTICLE IV.

The Managers at Tom's make out the first Part of the fourth Article out of their own Words, Page 15. where you affirm, that there are falfe Brethren ⚫ in Church and State, who do weaken, and undermine, and betray in themfeives, and encourage, and put it in the Power of our profeffed Enemies to over-turn and deftroy the Conftitution of both.' Then, that we may know whom you mean by thefe Falfe Brethren, you explain yourself in Page 22. That as to falfe Brotherhood in regard to the World or State, we may fee Men of Character, and Stations, fhift and prevaricate with their Principles, ftart from their Religion upon any Occafion of Difficulty or Trial, and like the Difciples, flying from and forfaking our Saviour when his Life lay at ftake. What can unwary Perfons conclude from fuch Tergiverfation and Hypocrify, but that all Religion is State-craft and Impofture? To give still a higher Notion of these False Brethren, the Men of Characters and Stations, he Kk 2

* Application of the Lower-Houfe of Convocation in 1707.

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