Give me leave, who have in all my words and actions, from my youth upwards, maintained an inviolable respect to you and your order, to observe to you, that all the dissatisfactions which have been raised in the minds of 5 the people owe their rise to the cunning of artful men, who have introduced the mention of you and your interest (which are sacred to all good men) to cover and sanctify their own practices upon the affections of the people, for ends very different from the promotion of 10 religion and virtue. Give me leave also to take notice that these suggestions have been favoured by some few unwary men in holy orders, who have made the constitution of their own country a very little part of their study, and yet made obedience and government the 15 frequent subjects of their discourses.

These men, from the pompous ideas of imperial greatness and submission to absolute emperors, which they imbibed in their earlier years, have from time to time inadvertently uttered notions of power and 20 obedience abhorrent from the laws of this their native country.

I will take the further liberty to say that if the acts of Parliament mentioned in the following treatise had been from time to time put in a fair and clear light, 25 and been carefully recommended to the perusal of young gentlemen in colleges, with a preference to all other civil institutions whatsoever, this kingdom had not been in its present condition, but the constitution would have had, in every member the universities have sent into the 30 world ever since the revolution, an advocate for our rights and liberties.

There is one thing which deserves your most serious consideration. You have bound yourselves by the strongest engagements that religion can lay upon men

to support that succession which is the subject of the following papers; you have tied down your souls by an oath to maintain it as it is settled in the house of Hanover; nay, you have gone much further than is usual in cases of this nature, as you have personally abjured 5 the pretender to this crown, and that expressly, without any equivocations or mental reservations whatsoever, that is, without any possible escapes, by which the subtlety of temporizing casuists might hope to elude the force of these solemn obligations. You know much 10 better than I do, whether the calling God to witness to the sincerity of our intentions in these cases, whether the swearing upon the holy evangelists in the most solemn manner, whether the taking of an oath before multitudes of fellow-subjects and fellow-Christians in 15 our public courts of justice, do not lay the greatest obligations that can be laid on the consciences of men. This I am sure of, that if the body of a clergy who considerately and voluntarily entered into these engagements, should be made use of as instruments and examples to 20 make the nation break through them, not only the succession to our crown but the very essence of our religion is in danger. What a triumph would it furnish to those evil men among us who are enemies to your sacred order? What occasion would it administer to 25 atheists and unbelievers, to say that Christianity is nothing else but an outward show and pretence among the most knowing of its professors? What could we afterwards object to Jesuits? What would be the scandal brought upon our holy church, which is at present the 30 glory and bulwark of the Reformation? How would our present clergy appear in the eyes of their posterity and even to the successors of their own order, under a government introduced and established by a conduct so

directly opposite to all the rules of honour and precepts of Christianity?

As I always speak and think of your holy order with the utmost deference and respect, I do not insist upon 5 this subject to insinuate that there is such a disposition among your venerable body, but to show how much your own honour and the interest of religion is concerned that there should be no cause given for it.

Under colour of a zeal towards you, men may some10 times act not only with impunity but popularity, what would render them, without that hypocrisy, insufferably odious to their fellow-subjects.

Under this pretence men may presume to practise such arts for the destruction and dishonour of their 15 country, as it would be impious to make use of even for

its glory and safety; men may do in the highest prosperity what it would not be excusable to attempt under the lowest necessity!

The laws of our country, the powers of the legislature, 20 the faith of nations, and the honour of God, may be too weak considerations to bear up against the popular though groundless cry of "the church." This fatal prepossession may shelter men in raising the French name and Roman Catholic interest in Great Britain, and con25 sequently in all Europe.

It behooves you, therefore, gentlemen, to consider whether the cry of the church's danger may not at length become a truth; and as you are men of sense and men of honour, to exert yourselves in undeceiving the multitude, 30 whenever their affectionate concern for you may prove fatal to themselves.

You are surrounded by a learned, wealthy, and knowing gentry, who can distinguish your merit and do honour to your characters. They know with what firm

ness as Englishmen, with what self-denial as prelates, with what charity as Christians, the lords the bishops, fathers of the church, have behaved themselves in the public cause; they know what contumelies the rest of the clergy have undergone, what discountenance they 5 have laboured under, what prejudice they have suffered in their ministry who have adhered to the cause of truth. But it is certain that the face of things is now too melancholy to bear any longer false appearances; and common danger has united men, who not long ago 10 were artfully inflamed against each other, into some regard of their common safety.

When the world is in this temper, those of our pastors whose exemplary lives and charitable dispositions both adorn and advance our holy religion, will be the objects 15 of our love and admiration; and those who pursue the gratifications of pride, ambition, and avarice, under the sacred character of clergymen, will not fail to be our contempt and derision.

Noise and wrath cannot always pass for zeal; and if 20 we see but little of the public spirit of Englishmen or the charity of Christians in others, it is certain we can feel but little of the pleasure of love and gratitude, and but faint emotions of respect and veneration in ourselves.

25

It will be an action worthy the ministers of the Church of England, to distinguish themselves for the love of their country; and as we have a religion that wants no assistance from artifice or enlargement of secular power, but is well supported by the wisdom and piety of its 30 preachers, and its own native truth, to let mankind see that we have a clergy who are of the people, obedient to the same laws, and zealous not only of the supremacy and prerogative of our princes, but of the liberties of

their fellow-subjects. This will make us who are your flock burn with joy to see, and with zeal to imitate, your lives and actions. It cannot be expected but that there will be, in so great a body, light, superficial, vain, 5 and ambitious men, who, being untouched with the sublime force of the gospel, will think it their interest to insinuate jealousies between the clergy and laity, in hopes to derive from their order a veneration which they know they cannot deserve from their virtue. But 10 while the most worthy, conspicuous, learned, and powerful of your sacred function are moved by the noble and generous incentives of doing good to the souls of men, we will not doubt of seeing by your ministry the love of our country, due regard for our laws and liberties, and 15 resentment for the abuse of truth, revive in the hearts of men. And as there are no instruments under heaven so capable of this great work, that God would make you such to this divided nation, is the hearty prayer of,

[From the Lover, February 25, to May 27, 1714.]

[No. 7.]

25

HABET ET SUA CASTRA CUPIDO.

Ov.

Thursday, March 11 [1714].

It has been always my opinion that a man in love should address himself to his mistress with passion and sincerity; and that if this method fails, it is in vain for him to have recourse to artifice or dissimulation, in which 30 he will always find himself worsted, unless he be a much