quiries after Truth, are looked on as worthy of Attention: May it ever be efteemed as it ought to be! And whenever a haughty, afpiring, and time-ferving Prelate fhall invade the Rights of the People, to protect the Enormities of his own Order, and attempt to fupprefs all ufeful Writings, which strike at the Vices and Corruptions of the Clergy, cloaking his Malice and bad Defigns under the fraudulent Covert of Zeal for the King, and Affection to the Government, perhaps without the leaft fincere Good-will to either; like Laud, the Flatterer, Mifleader, and Undoer of King Charles the First; may there never be wanting a faithful and an able Minister, willing and active, like Captain HORNE, to abate his Pride, defeat. his Malice, and confound his Devices! THE PREFACE. A M to acquaint the Reader, that I have carefully looked over and corrected this Edition of the INDEPENDENT WHIG, and made many neceflary Additions and Amendments. It has been a general, indeed a just Complaint, that Books in England are fhamefully and incorrectly printed. I think it great Difhonefty to publish any Book in a careless and faulty Manner; but fuch Difhonefty is grown fo common, that few Bookfellers are alhamid of it. Gain got this way is /candalously got, though fome have profpered exceedingly by it. Books badly and incorrectly printed, like sophisticated Goods, ought to be forfeited and burned. I know fome confiderable Bookfellers who have. fbewn fuch manifeft want of common Honesty in this Matter, and even in publishing fome of our beft Authors, Authors by whom they have got infinite Profit; that they ought to be reArained by a particular Law from publishing any more Books for ever. What would you fay of a Goldfmith, who, in felling you a Quantity of Plate, defrauded you in the Weight, or fold, you Silver ill wrought and full of Drofs? TO gratify the ufual Curiofity of Readers, I have, at the End of each Paper, put the initial Letter of the Name of the Gentleman who wrote it. As there were only Three Gentlemen concerned in the Undertaking, and as their Names are well known, it will be easy to diftinguish them by this Mark. THE Craftsmen, a Sermon published at the fame time, under the Name, and in the Style, of the late Daniel Burgefs, was, for the Conformity of the Subject, and the Occafion of writing it, (which in the Advertisement prefixed to it I have explained) thought proper to be added to this Impreffion, and to all that shall follow; as was alfo the Bishop of MANN's Bull, or his Curfe and Mifreprefentation of the INDEPENDENT WHIG, addressed to the Clergy of bis Diocese, and folemnly regiftred amongst the Ecclefiaftical Archives there. It is therefore preferved here as a great Singularity, which fhews the Spirit and Rage of the Man, and what fuch a Spirit would produce, were it let loofe. His Performance, I thought, deferved no other Anfwer than this, and I defigned to have beftowed none upon it: Yet I find, that the Letter to the Publisher bas I paid paid it a Diftinction which I never should, and expofed at length his Nonfenfe, Fury and ill Names, with masterly Reasoning and Style. THE Infcription upon Mr. Trenchard's Tomb is likewife inferted, with an English Tranflation of it, out of Refpect to his Memory, and to the Share which he had in the following Work. There is alfo added to this Edition, A Letter to a Gentleman at Edinburgh, concerning the bufy and affuming Spirit of the Ecclefiaftics, and their extravagant Demands upon the Laity: Written fome Years ago, and never before printed. AMONGST the many Invectives against the INDEPENDENT WHIG, there came forth one about eight Years ago, under the Name of a certain Clergyman, whom for his own Sake I bring not upon the public Stage, full of Declamation, perfonal Railing, and miferable Cavilling; of all which I should have taken no notice, but that I hear he boasts what a deadly Shock he gave by it to Mr. Trenchard. What bis own Vanity may fuggeft to him, I know not; but this I know, that Mr. Trenchard, though then upon his Death-bed, and past all Hopes of Recovery, having read fome Pages in it, laughed very heartily at it. He faid, That he had always taken the Author to have been an honest and a grateful Man (for he owed much to Mr. Trenchard's Family :) But fince I was mistaken, I am glad, says he, to be undeceived, and I rejoice, yea, I rejoice. D 2 This This was his Behaviour, thefe bis Words. To all this I was Witness. The Author calls his Book, An Anfwer to the feveral Papers publifh'd by the Name of the INDEPENDENT WHIG. But after much Boafting, Threatening, and Inveighing, be confines himself intirely to the laft Paper. Against that be rants and cavils, in fuch Language as 1 should be Sorry to repeat, and yet has the Candor to call bis Declamation an Answer to the Whole; though, as far as I remember, for I happened to look into it at that time) be meddles with none but that one Paper, which he has fill left unanswered. December 21. THE |