the honourable houfe of Commons fay, when they find how they have been taken in?

Mr. Burke is a perfon with whom I have been well acquainted more than twenty years, and till this affair, he always profeffed much respect for me, as I had for him. The last time he came through Birmingham, he called at my house, and we had much free and confidential converfation. But how fhall we meet after this? He will blame his want of fagacity, in being over-reached; but he will fay, "how could I expect any deceit from fo holy a quarter. Now my friends, you need not be told that they who could do this, or knowingly permit others to do it, would do almost any thing else to gain the fame point. They must have had an intent to deceive, and this it is that conftitutes the criminality of any wilful violation of truth.

How great, then, must be the value that your clergy (for the fufpicion will naturally fall on fome of this body) have for the cause of the church, when they rifque even their own salvation for the fake of it? The conduct of the apoftles themselves was never fo difinterested as this. But, like the immortal Curtius, they confidered that, if they did not. leap into the gulph, the church itself, and all you who belong to it, must have been swallowed up. Now, had there been any purgatory in your church, this conduct would not have been fo meritorious. For out of purgatory there is redemption, but none from that place to which whosoever loveth and maketh a lie (Rev. xxii. 15.) muft go. But this being a place only mentioned in fermons, and by polite preachers not even there, I must refer you to your Bibles, if you wish to know any thing more about it. It is poffible, however, that as those of the clergy who distinguish themfelves the most by their oppofition to Diffenters approach a little to the church of Rome, they may think to fave themfelves by confessing and abfolving one another. And as life is always uncertain, if they be as wife in the affairs of the next world as they are in those of this, the ceremony is by

this

this time probably over, and their confciences entirely at rest. Think not, however, that they would recommend fuch conduct to you, and thereby rifque your falvation; fince it is only for the fake of the church, in which your falvation, your lives and fafeties all, are embarked, that they who are a few, chuse to run this rifque for you who are many.

When the mischief is done, the proverb fays we may as well laugh as cry, because both are equally unavailing, and the former is more pleasant, as well as more conducive to health. I hope, therefore, you will excufe me, though I have not been quite ferious on a very serious fubject. Indeed, as a serious one, it concerns your clergy and yourfelves, much more than it does me. I fhall, however, conclude this letter with perfect feriousness.

The temper which your clergy have shewn in preaching, without any provocation whatever, fo long, and fo violently, against the Diffenters, and the measures they have taken to oppofe us, fome of them, you fee, the most artful and wicked, give us real concern; and we have the lefs hope of any return of liberality in our favour from feeing fuch men as Mr. Madan joining the party of the bigots, and retailing with apparent glee the low and malignant fcurrility of Swift against the Diffenters of his day.

As to Mr. Burn's being willing to have a gird at me, as Falstaff fays, it may eafily be accounted for. He has a laudable view to rife in his profeffion; and being a man of good natural understanding, and good elocution, but having had no advantage of education, or family connexions, he may think it neceffary to do something in order to make himself confpicuoùs. And he might fuppofe he could not do better than follow the fure footsteps of thofe who had fucceeded in the fame chace before him. This might appear the more neceffary in his cafe, as, having been a preacher among the Methodifts and Diffenters (which, as I am well. known highly to respect the Methodifts, little as they respect me, and as I am a diffenting minister myself, I cannot mention with any contempt) his attachment to the established

church

church might, without doing fomething of this nature, have been liable to be queftioned.

But Mr. Madan is in very different circumftances. He is a gentleman born. His family and connections are respectable; he has had the most liberal education that his country can give. He is a man of a natural good temper, of polished and engaging manners, and the door of preferment is so open to him, that he hardly needs to knock in order to enter. For fuch a man as he, without any provocation, to deal out fuch grofs abuse, and with fuch uncommon folemnity, fhews what we have to expect from the times. If fuch men as Mr. Madan can diveft themfelves of all liberality of fentiment, and treat as rebels, and hypocrites, men with whom they have frequent intercourfe, and whom they ought to know better, and confequently to respect, we fee that, as things are now fituated, there is no hope left. If not from fuch men as he, from whom are we to expect decent treatment? It is a proof that the standard is raised against us, and that all the clergy, and other friends of the court, whether naturally difpofed to it or not, must join their ranks, in oppofing us.

And what is it that they are purfuing? It is a mere fhadow, an unrefifting fubftance. We have neither the power, nor the will, to make any opposition, except in a field in which they cannot meet us, the open field of reason and argument. Out of this we can never be forced; and as to this, or any particular country, we are citizens of the world; and if we be perfecuted in one place, we must endeavour, as our Saviour recommends, to flee to another. Hoping, however, to be permitted to stay a while longer in a fituation fo perfectly agreeable to me in other refpects, and not having very long to continue in any,

I am, &c.

P. S. The subject of my next Letter will be Toleration, which being a thing that Mr. Madan has no want of himfelf, I fhall fhew you he has thought little about, and certainly does not understand.

LETTER VI.

Of a Complete Toleration.

My Friends and Countrymen,

MR. Madan, like other writers on the fame fide of the

queftion, willing to reprefent the church to which he belongs in the best light that he can (and toleration being fortunately at this time a reputable thing) gives it the praise of tolerant. Now this we Diffenters readily and thankfully acknowledge to a certain degree. The Act of Toleration, paffed in the time of king William, which rescued the Diffenters from starving or rotting in dungeons, and which, under certain, though hard, reftrictions, allowed them to worship God in the forms they most approved, was a valuable thing. But for this we do not confider ourselves as at all indebted to the church, though the bishops might not vote against it. It was the liberality of the state, in spite of the church. The fame was the cafe with respect to the last boon that we obtained. For it was not till after two repulfes, in which the bishops, as ufual, voted on the intolerant fide of the queftion, that we got excufed from fubfcribing many of the articles of the church of England by which we had been bound before. But ftill it is well known that another act of parliament remains in force, which makes it eventually confifcation of goods and imprisonment for life for any man, educated a chriftian, to declare his dif belief of the doctrine of the trinity.

Now, as many of us Diffenters do feriously difbelieve this doctrine of the trinity, and even think it our duty to endeavour to bring others to believe as we do, viz. in the doctrine of the divine unity, as opposed to that of the trinity, it is evident that, while this law fubfifts, there is no proper toleration in this country for us. And yet Mr. Madan,

knowing

knowing this, and expressly mentioning it, can infult us, as others of the clergy are perpetually doing, by saying, p. 12, that we have "the fulleft liberty of confcience and "opinion." "This doctrine," (viz. the trinity) fays he, p. 19," the Diffenters think proper to reject, and they are at liberty to reject it," that is at the rifque of the penalty above mentioned, which, if any person should be bigot enough to inform against us, neither Mr. Madan, nor any other clergyman, let his difpofition towards us be ever fo friendly, can prevent being exacted to the uttermoft. This certainly is no toleration. It is mere connivance, and such as ány felon may enjoy while ncbody thinks proper to profecute him.

Mr. Madan himfelf fays, p. 21, "I will admit that the rigorous execution of this law would certainly be in“tolerant.” Is it not then plain, that though Englishmen may be merciful, the laws are unmerciful, and therefore ought to be repealed? You will naturally think that after Mr. Madan himfelf had taxed the law with intolerance, if carried into execution (which is certainly faying nothing at all in favour of the law) he would be for the repeal of it. But this by no means follows. Without calling this law any guard of the church, or of the principles of it, which however it was intended to be, and even making a merit of its not being executed, he fays, p. 21, "the deliberate repeal "of it would certainly operate as a virtual fanétion for that. " conduct which it was enacted to refrain." That is, if there had been any law which made it death to steal an apple, it ought not to be repealed, because that would be a virtual fanction to the stealing of apples. Is not this most curious reasoning? Your clergy, I hope, give you better from the pulpit than in such publications as thefe. If the reasoning of Paul (Acts xxiv. 25.) had been no better than this, Felix would have been more disposed to laugh than to tremble. It is, indeed, fomething extraordinary that Mr. Madan's ingenuity fhould not be able to find fome medium in this case, either by proportioning the punishment to the crime,

or