called liberties are still, in practice, left to us, and for the advantage of having gold for a covering to the rods by which we are ruled. Even to David Hume, those enthu siasts-those sectaries-those schismatics-those men of guilt,-(for, according to the present as well as the late Lord of London (p. 1), all schism is guilt)—were known by the liberties which they gained for us, and left to us :-to his Lordship they are known only by "the troubles they "excited" for, to his Lordship, and those who think and act with him, every breast which presumes (p. 16) to "question" what it should "learn;" to harbour any such 66 guilt" as that of "schism," or so much as (p. 2) any "opinion.. .. which, even by remote consequences, might "unsettle the faith of the inexperienced," is a fit object of exposure," and a declared source of "trouble."

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The Puritans, exciters of troubles !-exciters only! as if, so far as they have had power, they have not been com posers of troubles likewise!-as if it were not by the composing of those troubles, which to that end they contributed to the excitement of, (for how else could any thing good have been done?) that in Scotland they succeeded at length in establishing that system of Church Government, which, if the absence of all Church management, daubed with the untempered mortar of temporal power, be not still better,-will, the more it is looked into, be the more universally and clearly seen to want little indeed of being a model of perfection :-which, to the most useful and impor tant-and those really performed duties-unknown to the Church of England,—such as inspection of Schools and management of Poors' funds,-adds the merit of self-purification, and the blessing of purity, from all the abuses, such as Creeds, Unchangeable Formularies, Reading without thinking, Sinecures, Non-Residence, Pluralities, Surplice fees, Palaces,-sanctified seats of princely opu

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lence, close by the side of the abodes of destitute penury:-penury so destitute, that not so much as the shadow of an excuse could be found for the continuance of it, if the uselessness of the service thus equipped and remunerated had not superseded the need of all excuse for the neglect of it :-the system (I say) of that Church (for now I am come back to Scotland) which now, for more than a century has scorned to endure, within its bosom, a set of puppets, invested each of them with a portion of the sovereignty, to no other purpose than that of giving, to a notoriously dependent assembly, a mendacious colour of independence, covering interested servility with the cloak of gratitude.

Such were the Puritans-those "schismatics"-those men of "guilt"—those exciters of troubles;-such, in both kingdoms, the object,-and such in Scotland the result―of the troubles they excited :-such in England then, and alas! still, the demand for troubles; for troubles having the like object, and, by like favour of Almighty beneficence, the like result.

Yes: could a similar consummation be here secured, might not a moderate portion of some of those things, reprobated by this prostrator of understandings and wills, under the name of troubles,-might not some of these troubles, suited to the improved character of the times-troubles, if composed of reasoning alone, and without slaughtering,-be well employed? Let any one, to whom either pure religion, pure morals, or pure government is an object of affection, think and judge.

A mask forsooth-a mask necessary (so his Lordship, p. 14, would persuade us) for the "adversaries" of his Church?

The Quaker, the Baptist, the Methodist, the Independent, the Presbyterian, the Unitarian Christian, the Deist, the Atheist-as if any of all these had any the smallest need

of, or use for, any such thing as a mask, for bringing to view the corruptions, as above, by which the Church of England remains assimilated to the Church of Rome,-distinguished above all other established Churches, and from all non-established ones?

Still the same endeavour to cause men to be condemned for opinions not their own! The Christian Unitarian— what support can he look to give to his Christian opinions by Anti-Christian arguments?-the Atheist-what support can he look to give to his Atheistical opinions by Theistical arguments?-by what can either of them defend his own opinions, but by arguments corresponding and adapted to these same opinions?-On the subject of religion, each of these-unless the Atheist be an exception-has some opinions in common with every other. Is it a fraud in him to bring to view the reasons by which his own opinions have been recommended to him?—is this a fraud in him, merely because, in minds that entertain other opinions not entertained by himself, these reasons may happen to stand approved?

The Quaker, the Baptist, the Methodist, the Independent, the Presbyterian, the Unitarian Christian, the Deist, the Atheist, the Church-of-England layman—all these,— but, above all, this layman—find, in the shapes just mentioned, oppressors, and as such adversaries, in the Churchof-England Clergy, headed by the Church-of-England Hierarchy :—yes: all these; but, for the causes already brought to view, most of all the great body of Church-of-Englandists.-Without any endeavour at relief, am I to submit for ever to oppression, for no other reason, than that if I were to obtain relief, it might be shared with me by this or that other man, who, though he feels, happens not to think, as I do?

A mask indeed!-The Church-of-England receiver of

the Holy Ghost-be he Church-ruler-Minister-or consecrated idler-to him, and to him alone, can any such implement be of use:-and, on his part, constant and incontestable is the demand for it.

The poisons, which it is the sure effect of that formulary, so far as it has any, to infuse-poisons to the intellectual, poisons to the moral, poisons to the sensitive part of man's frame, these poisons-not to speak of the remainder of that set of lengthened bead-rolls, of which it forms a part-have here in part been brought to view. To preserve his Lordship, for example, from the awkwardness of being seen to see these fruits of Church-of-England doctrine and discipline, or of being forced to shut his eyes against them, to save himself from seeing them-to such purposes a mask might perhaps be not altogether without its use.

The Creeds-all of them at war with reason, with Scripture, and with one another;-the everlasting and lengthened bead-rolls, heard or not heard, between sleep. ing and waking, while they are mumbled over without thinking;-the Sinecures, the Pluralities, the Non-Residences, the outrageously-paid Benefices, the fornication-compelling, and birth and death-embittering Surplice-fees; the gorgeous opulence by the side of the useless pittance, indiscriminately attached in the shape of purchase money, to the same useless, if not unrendered, service;-the intestine war, so anxiously perpetuated in the hearts of the respective parishes, by the perpetuation of a mode of payment, established by the Church of Rome, when the barbarism combined with the superstition of the times, in giving to the most oppressive of taxes the character of an unavoidable one;-Yes, for the countenance, which can look in the face abuses such as these, with a determination to deny either the existence or the mischievousness of them-for a countenance of such a complexion a mask may well be necessary!

Yes-necessary for any course of warfare in which abuses such as these are undertaken to be defended, will be not only a mask, or rather a head-piece,—but the whole armour of those fallacies, which Aristotle never dreamt of, and which by the ingenuity of succeeding Sophists have been invented: fallacies, of which he who thinks it worth his while, may in the works of Court-and-Church-of-England polemics, and in particular in this Charge, find as many exemplifications as he need desire.

As for trade, so for religion,—different as they are in other respects, whatsoever may have been the case in the days of primæval barbarism, the best thing that a government could now do, would be not to meddle with it, always excepted the purifying it from whatsoever portions of the matter of wealth, power, or dignity, in the shape of the matter of corruption, superstition has ever daubed it with. Revenue forces government to meddle with trade: but (witness America else), neither revenue nor any thing else forces government to meddle with religion. The perfection of all Church management is the absence of all Church government. Witness all the sects: witness every sectary in the kingdom. In what sect, in the breast of what sectary, is religion a matter of indifference? In what sect does a man declare himself to believe any thing he does not believe? In what sect does a Minister extort money for doing nothing? In what sect is the service, taken by itself, spoken of as a hardship,-as matter of complaint, and by the pay, and that alone, rendered just endurable? In what sect is a Minister paid for his service, the value of a penny more than by those to whom it is rendered it is thought worth? In what sect does the Minister insult the indigent, by the display of an opulence, wrung out of the bowels of indigence? Where is the sect that furnishes puppets, to act the part of free