character, and an unintelligible style, his paradoxes" were "probably not known to a dozen persons in this busy country of industry and ambition. In a bigotted age, he might have suffered the martyrdom of Vanini or Bruno. In a metaphysical country, where a publication was the most interesting event, and where twenty Universities, unfettered by Church or State, were hot-beds of speculation, he might have acquired celebrity as the founder of a sect."

XVI. This selection may prove, at least, that the preceding publications were not at the desirable crisis, in time, nor at the proper place, for dissemination of theological Truth.

XVII. A more immediate and interesting inquiry succeeds: Whether this is the happy era of Truth?

XVIII. The Compiler readily, as to locality, admits-that ineffectual will be the doctrines of the universal predominancy of natural good and even of ultimate perfection; whilst the majority of any extensive society, in which those doctrines may be promulgated, and of which our universality is, fractionally, composed, are suffering under the predomi

nancy, and increasing pressure, of local and artificial evil.

XIX. The Compiler has only to allege, that local obstructions, have probably existed through all recorded time, and, if the following beneficial doctrines are not in correspondence with the existing state of any particular society, the tenets still remain generally applicable to communities as they are, or ought, or will, most probably, progressively exist.

XX. Since the preceding publications, beneficial circumstances, generally, have locally and materially progressed.

LEGISLATIVE PROGRESSION.

XXI. The removal of burdens and restrictions from the common comforts, or at least, from the necessaries of life and labour, have afforded scope to the universal bounties of Providence, and in the promotion of the industrious propensities of the people, have, in effect, greatly progressed: and the poor, comparatively, with whom artificial evils, more especially prevailed, have in the increase of commerce, found an increasing demand for their labour, with, not only the legal means of sup

plying their necessities, but their comforts: while in the full occupation of their time and their attention, there has been little foundation for charges of general dissatisfaction and much less of sedition, in the lower classes, nor in the operative poor for complaints of their low wages, nor in the public, of their turbulence or their wants.

XXII. On the part of the intellectual-the free-thinking proportion of the community, the peculiar liberality of Parliament is acknowledged with heartfelt gratitude, for granting relief, so as to afford strong inducement to the public, in general, to confide in the inclination of the Legislature to remove restraints from speculations of a theological, without an immoral tendency, or foreign influence; but, as establishing a reciprocal claim from every British free-thinker, in his freedom of speech and writing, of avoiding of asperity towards the theological partialities, and, even the prejudices of his country, so far as avoidable in the necessary illustration of Truth, and of that humanity which has extended even to the brute creation. These are imperial designs, worthy of an Imperial Parliament, seconded by the enthusiasm of an

already enlightened people; firm friends to the liberty of the press, and of free discussion: the due estimation of which, the public have not ceased to demonstrate, and our aim is only to assist the progress of public opinion, for that would promote "the cause of Civil and Religious Liberty all over the world."

XXIII. It is now but justice to the great nation to whom this is more immediately addressed, to consider them not only as a people to whom Truth is not at present dreadful, and who can consider things otherwise than in a confined and partial view, but as composed of individuals who have also nobly asserted their opinions in the universal Republic of Letters.

1

THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH.

1. In the universality of this spiritual temple the members of local churches may be component parts, in the degree in which they are influenced by the Spirit of the God of Nature.

2. The corporeal temple of the universal Creator is the universe at large, and is as permanent as nature; representing in that permanency and universality, the immutability of the source of that church, which founded, from time immemorial on the impregnable rock of nature, has stood the test of time, the ravages of ages, and is still in its pristine vigour still influenced by the directing Spirit of that God, which pervading the universe, rises predominant over any petty distinction, which the variations of time and place have made in the rational creation: so far as that