way of fuppling them to the political one. Inftances of their industry in this department will be remembered, without quoting particulars. "And though," fay the Conjecturers, "the facerdotal spirit was under rebuke during the reigns of "the two immediate fucceffors of Queen Anne, it was nei"ther idle nor improvident, but kept its muniments in ex"cellent prefervation, against the time when it might more openly pretend to the patronage and protection of the civil powers."

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I wish I could treat these speculations as the mere dreams of a party; and I certainly fhould do it, were there not too much verifimilitude in more recent events, to justify an inquifitive writer for rejecting the hypothefis.

There are few paffages in the New Testament, which have employed my meditations more, than that prophetic notice given by old Simeon *, Luke ii. 25, that the thoughts of many hearts should be revealed in confequence of the mission of Jefus Chrift.

Government ecclefiaftical has been fo managed in these latter ages, even in Proteftant churches, as to tempt many capable readers of the Bible, to fufpect a tendency in it to exclude that kind of rule which Chrift and his Apoftles have prefcribed to their fucceffors in the province of feeding the flock of God.

Our common people have been the lefs aware of this encroachment, as great pains have been taken to teach them from their infancy, that not only an authority to teach was left to church-governors, by the founders of the Chriftian religion, but an authority to prefcribe modes of faith

Not the Simeon, who in the St. James's Chronicle of February 8, 1772, called the thirty-nine articles the TYE-WIGS of the Church.

and

and worship, in all cafes where they should find it expedient.

There is a certain fort of men appearing among us at particular intervals, who, when they get a New Testament into their hands, will be telling the world what they find in it, though it is ever fo contrary to the bon ton. Among others of this difpofition, may be reckoned, John Milton, John Locke, Samuel Clarke, and Benjamin Hoadley; the last of whom is fuppofed to have greatly contributed, in his day, to keep the hierarchical maxims of the four last years above mentioned, much in the fhade, by confronting them with the genuine documents of the facred writings.

But he was mortal, and fo were his political patrons, and about the time of his demife, certain geniufes arofe, who, by putting fome of their own old wine into his new bottles, amufed the world with a kind of half-christianity, which kept things pretty well in petto, till the taste of the world was prepared for a more complete adulteration.

But within these last ten or twelve years, fome men of more courage than difcretion, have undertaken to examine this heterogeneous fyftem with precifion, and in the courfe of the process, feem to have found reafon to go farther than even Dr. Hoadley had ventured: namely, to contrast the affumed powers of church and ftate in alliance, touching the impofition of fubfcriptions to human creeds and confeffions, with the genuine rules of government exhibited in the fcriptures, and occafionally acknowledged by the church of England itself.

Here the lurking fpirit of church domination broke forth in all its glory. In truth, the provocation was intolerable. Matters were going quietly on, in the moft favourable manner for the great caufe of the Alliance. The good Proteftant

people

people of England, had patiently fuffered themselves to be told, that no christianity is authentic, which is not taught in the forms of the church of England. They had patiently fuffered themselves to be told, on another hand, that Religion is an Engine contrived to keep the people in fubjection, and that no body knows how to work it but the Clergy. And lastly, the good Protestants of this kingdom received information, and that from an authority it became them not to question, that Popery was become an inoffenfive system, and that the vigilance of their Paftors, heretofore fo folicitous to guard against its influence, might now be better employed.

When the ancient church-fyftem was fo hopefully reviving, and gradually gathering ftrength, when the jeft, as Falftaffe fays, was fo forward, and a-foot too, what could be more vexatious, than for these impertinent scripturists to pretend to lay open its deformities to the meaneft of the people?

The alarm however being taken, champions in abundance arofe to chastise those retrograde fons of the church. Champions indeed of different complexions, and confequently not uniform in their defences. Some adopted the political religion of Hobbes. Others drew their arguments from the traditional teftimonies of the independent powers of the Hierarchy; many of these were volunteers. They who wrote or published by commission, generally trimmed between the two, and were inceffantly drawing back with one hand, the conceffions they had given up with the other, with a view, it fhould feem, of magnifying the moderation of those who fet them to work, at the expence of their confistency.

The countenance of fuperiors could not keep thefe performances in credit. Common fenfe was difgufted with the sophistry employed in them, and liberal minds were in pain

for

for the confequences of adopting it as part of the public fyftem. And this probably (for I am in no fecret of this fort) gave the hint, that the cafe being now before the public, a proper time was at hand to attempt a deliverance from a bond, which, befides being contrary to the dictates of Christianity, and the conceffions of our proteftant church, could no longer be fubfervient to the purposes of uniformity, as they who laboured to fupport it, were themselves fo inconfiftent in their schemes of reconciling the injunction to any principles of reason or justice.

Why the Petitioners chose the method of applying to the Houfe of Commons in the first instance, I can offer nothing but conjectures: and thefe I must postpone, till I have attempted to account for another appearance, and to discover some reason why our ecclefiaftical governors, who have fo long affected the character of moderation, fhould, upon occafion of this Petition, be fo far furprifed out of their ufual prefence of mind, as to make no fecret of their enmity to it.

From the moment an intimation was given, that fuch Petition was intended, the emiffaries of those who lay claim to orthodoxy as their peculiar, endeavoured to load thofe who fhould be concerned in it, with every evil imputation that a malignant heart could harbour. At first, this was a poftulatum ex hypothefi: but it has been continued even to this hour, when the Petitioners are better known. Not one of them is allowed to have acted from a principle of confcience, though it is fo hard to fay, what elfe could fet them to work. If I am rightly informed, a great part of them are men of refpectable fecular connexions, and might hope, by the interest of their friends and patrons, to rife to as comfortable and honourable preferments as the most of those who draw the pen against them. Would fuch men cut the grass un

der

der their own feet, without any motive confiftent with common fenfe?

Though I am a stranger to almost every Bishop upon the bench, I will venture to affirm, that their Lordships have a better opinion both of the sense and integrity of the Petitioners. Some of them are authors, and by what I have feen of their compofitions, their Lordships are incapable of being impofed upon by the representations of those very indifferent writers, who retailed this calumny to the public.

So however it fell out, and the general cry was, The "Petitioners are endeavouring to ruin the Establishment ;" a complex and equivocal term, which fome are unable, and others too indolent, or too artful, to analyse. The herd of our conformifts take it to mean the ftones and timber of a Cathedral; and to fpeak the honest truth, they, who use the word in another sense, and afcribe thefe lethiferous confequences to an alteration of fubfcription to the thirty-nine articles, or even to the substitution of the scriptures for the articles themselves, are very little wiser, or else not half so honest.

Dignitaries indeed, of fome gravity, have afferted, that whatever the intention of the Petitioners might be, this ruin of the Establishment would be the effect of executing their plan. But not one man in ten could believe they were in earnest, till one of them undertook to give the proof in form.

This learned divine, however, wanted two poftulata to make way to his point, which perhaps he might not fo eafily obtain. What these were, fhall be observed by and by.—But the conclufion being obtained, it was natural enough to ask, what was to be substituted in the place of the Establishment? Why they knew not well what-CONFUSION