AN

APOLOGY

FOR

Mr. TOLAND,

In a LETTER from Himself to a Member of the House of Commons in Ireland; written the day before his Book was refolv'd to be burnt by the Committee of Religion.

To which is prefix'd a NARRATIVE containing the Occasion of the said LETTER.

Diis proximus Ille eft

Quem RATIO non IRA movet. Claudian.

LONDON,

Printed in the Year MDCCII

A NARRAT Í VE

Containing the Occafion of the following

LETTER.

Promife not to give any account at this time of the Controversy occafion'd by Mr. Toland's Book, nor to enter into the Merits of the Caufe on either fide. His Adverfaries seem not yet weary of writing against him; and when they have once done, it will be early enough then for him to reply, if he fees reafon fo to do: For it would be an endless labour to make Answers feverally to fo many as may concern themselves in this Difpute. My Defign is only to fhew what Treatment he receiv'd from fome People in Ireland, as far as that may ferve to fet the Letter annex'd to this Narrative in its proper light. And I fhall take care to infert nothing, but fuch notorious matters of Fact that no obferving Perfon in Dublin,or I might say perhaps in the Kingdom,can pretend ignorance concerning them, or deny them to be true.

Mr. Toland was fcarcely arriv'd in that Country, when he found himself warmly

attack'd from the Pulpit, which at the beginning could not but startle the People, who till then were equal Strangers to him and his Book;yet they became in a little time fo well accuftom'd to this Subject, that it was as much expected of courfe as if it had been prefcrib'd in the Rubrick. This occafion'd a Noble Lord to give it for a reafon why he frequented not the Church as formerly, that inftead of his Saviour JESUS CHRIST, one John Toland was all the difcourfe there. But how unworthy a Member foever of the Chriftian Religion Mr. Toland may be, he's ftill fo fenfible of the Obedience he juftly ows to its most Divine Precepts, that he dares not allow himfelf to make any returns in the fame Diale& to what was liberally utter'd against him in that place. We read, an Archangel was not Jude 9. permitted to rail against the very Devil; and if Mr. Toland had not innumerable Paffages of the Gospel to restrain him, yet the Reverence all Men ow to their own Perfons join'd to the Rules of common Civility, would be powerful enough to keep him from beftowing any indecent Expreffions or Reflections upon his Oppofers. Nor is he fuch a Stranger to the former Ages or the prefent, as not to perceive that paffionate or violent Proceedings never

yet

yet gain'd Credit to a Canfe; nor produc'd any other Effects upon the Enemies of it, but to make 'em abhor it the more.

But when this rough handling of him in the Pulpit (where he could not have word about) prov'd infignificant, the Grand Jury was follicited to prefent him for a Book that was written and publish'd in England. And to gain the readier Compliance, the Prefentment of the Grand Jury of Middlefex was printed in Dublin with an emphatical Title, and cry'd about the Streets. So Mr. Toland was accordingly presented there the last day of the Term in the Court of King's Bench, the Jurors not grounding their proceeding upon any particular Paffages of his Book, which most of 'em never read, and thofe that did confefs'd not to understand. Thus in the Reign of Henry VI. one John Stephens was prefented by a Jury in Southwark, asa Man, fay they, we know not what to make of him, and that hath Books we know not what they are. In the mean time thofe of either Sex who had any intimacy with Mr. Toland, or that favour'd him with their familiar Converfation, were branded as his Profelytes, and Lifts of their Names industrious

*

* Bacon's Hiftorical Difcourfe of the Government of England, Part 2. cap. 17. pag. 161.