Laud, was so just as to confess, that "in his book against Fisher, he had muzzled the Jesuit, and would strike the Papists under the fifth rib, when he was dead and gone; and being dead, wherever his grave should be, Paul's would be his perpetual monument, and his own book his epitaph*."

Our author having judged in this manner, and being now of opinion that "the Church of England still is, though by degrees imperceptible to vulgar eyes, edg

* Dering's Collection of Speeches, p. 5. The Confessionalist, who cannot be content without beheading the memory of Archbishop Laud, follows the Independent Whig: who is for ever railing at Laud and his brethren-Laud and his faction—Laud a hot-headed monk, &c. Vol. iii. p. 282, 283. And speaking of Laud, and Bishop Cosins, and others like them, he observes, "the best apology that can be made for them is, that they were stark mad." p. 262. What apology then will be left for those, whose wisdom, religion, and justice, required them to cut off the head of a madman? When a man's malice is too much inflamed, it gets the better of his cunning. For if Archbishop Laud was black enough in his life-time, there is no occasion to blacken him after his death: and the practice is so unnecessary, absurd, and cruel, that if I heard a man bawling against a felon, formerly convicted at the Old Bailey, and keeping up the noise for twenty years after his execution, I should never be able to account for it, but by supposing that this man was conscious of the other's innocence, and afraid lest the guilt should be justly transferred from the sufferer to his accusers and judges. The inflammatory names bestowed on Churchmen by the predecessors of the Confessional, and the Independent Whig, were such as these -- Beelzebub of Canterbury, monstrous Antichristian, Pope, most bloody opposer of God's saints, vile and cursed tyrant; all this was for the metropolitan : the rest of the Bishops were incarnate devils, Bishops of the Devil, enemies of God; and the inferior Clergy were popish Priests, hogs, wolves, greedy dogs to fill their paunches, a cursed murthering generation. This reforming rhetoric is extracted from a book entitled the Modern History of Enthusiasm, which consists chiefy of a series of facts, such as I would recommend to the consideration of those who are in danger of being imposed upon by some of the pretensions of this age. Printed for Owen, in Fleet-street, 1757.

ing back once more towards popery*;" he and some of his com-plotters may think themselves obliged in conscience to effect another seasonable stoppage. But we hope they do not intend to pursue the same methods as before, because they were unchristian, and affixed no small degree of scandal and infamy upon the Protestant name. If the author's imagination hath flattered him into an expectation of seeing those times return upon us, it is like he will be disappointed. For the sectaries, to whom he hath taken so much pains to recommend himself, are not such now as they were formerly. Their separation hath given them an alliance with men not much inclined to any of the forms or doctrines of Christianity; and, if we except the Methodists, (to whom he hath also paid his compliments †) they are supposed to retain in general but little more than the vapid remains of that religious zeal which inspired them with violence in the days of Charles and Elizabeth: neither is it probable, that their zeal should be revived by his writings; in which there appears so strong a disaffection for the distinguishing articles of our common faith, with an inclination rather to dispute every thing than believe any thing. To this it may be added, upon his own authority, that as there is at present no tendency towards popery in the higher or lower orders of the Church, but such as is imperceptible to vulgar eyes; a stoppage at this time would not be seasonable. For the benefit of more learned eyes, he hath invented a very ingenious hypothesis, with a little of Mr. Bayle's assistance, by which he is able at any time to demonstrate, that the man who is not a Calvinist, either now is, or very soon will be, a. + Occas. Rem. P. ii, p. 25, 123.

*Confess. ibid.

papist. But as this hypothesis hath been contradicted by experiment for two hundred years, in this and other reformed Churches of Europe, it is not to be apprehended that he will gain many proselytes by the use of it.

I have now given a short view of those popular topics, to which a very considerable part of the Confessional may be reduced, and which the Author never loses sight of throughout the whole course of his work. Nothing more need be added at present, but a word or two of appeal to the Author himself: not that I am about to make any sanctified pretensions to charity*, for him to sneer at; or that I shall presume to offer him any good advice, which he would fling back in my face with some ill names at the end of it: my design being only to apply myself to his com

mon sense.

By reforming the Church then, I suppose he means altering it for the better: and he will hardly deny me the liberty of understanding the word in this sense, But let me ask him: is it credible that a writer, who hath treated the Church, and all that relates to it, with such outrageous contempt and aversion, can possibly intend to do it any good, either of the moral, religious, or œconomical kind? The tendency of his work ought to have appeared in the spirit of it: and if his sentiments are capable of any application for the benefit of religion, he is much to blame for proposing them in so suspicious a form. Deists and reprobates rail at the Church and the Clergy, not because they wish to see either of them better than they are; but because they abhor Christianity itself, and would be glad to render it contemptible, by as

* Occas. Rem. P. ii. p. 25.

saulting it indirectly through the persons of its ministers, and the forms of its establishment. If any writer argues with their temper and spirit, every impartial reader will naturally suppose him to be actuated by their motives and principles. Such an orator may easily know how the public will judge of him, if he will but bring the case home to himself.

Let him imagine then, that a physician had exhausted his breath and his eloquence in describing the Author of the Confessional as a monster made up of palpable error, pride, folly, avarice, cunning, cruelty, and hypocrisy; and could never mention his name without affixing to it some vilifying epithet, and pronouncing him absolutely unfit to live any longer in the world; now if this same physician, without being called in, should presently insist upon prescribing an alterative to mend the Author's constitution; what would he think of it? Indeed, what could he think, but that he was going to be poisoned? And who could be offended with him for apprehending the worst? especially if the officious doctor had solicited the higher powers, that the patient might be compelled, in defiance of the common principles of liberty, together with the most sacred rights of Englishmen, to swallow the prescription by a public order from the board of health, and destroy himself with his eyes open.

A

POSTSCRIPT,

IN ANSWER TO A LATE PRODUCTION OF THE SAME AUTHOR UNDER THE TITLE OF

A CARD.

THE Author of the Confessional presents his compliments to the reverend William Jones, A. B. late of University College in Oxford, and Rector of Pluckley in Kent, with his cordial thanks to his Reverence for taking so much pains to convince the public that the Principles and Spirit of the said Author are not the Principles and Spirit of the said reverend William Jones. It would greatly add to the obligation, if his Reverence would please to signify to the public, the true reason why a testimony so honourable to the Author of The Confessional, which hath been so many years upon paper, did not appear in print before. The said Author takes this opportunity to express his hopes, that his Reverence's old acquaintance at Oxford, will be no less grateful to his Reverence for exculpating their common mother from an opprobrious reflection of old John For the martyrologist, thrown out in the following terms. Fuit aliquando OXONIA vestra religionis parens, nunc videndum vobis ne degeneret in novercam. Audio enim nuper a vobis Oxoniensibus subscriptum esse obsoleto illi, ac jam dudum exploso, articulo de TRANSUBSTANTIATIONE. Upon the Principles, and in the Spirit, of the reverend William Jones, it may safely be affirmed, that John Fox was an old Ignoramus, who knew not the extent of Church-authority, or of the powers and privileges of an orthodox University."