frightened to death on this particular fubject) you take it for granted that your church never was without these Corporation and Test Acts, being its neceffary body guards; and leaft of all that it was without them in its tender infancy, when it must most of all have wanted fupport. But through all the reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. Elizabeth, James I. Charles I. and till the latter end of that of Charles II. viz. 1672, in all which time it rofe from nothing to its full ftrength and glory, there was no Test Act at all. All those princes were allowed to employ whom they thought proper in all business of a civil nature, and no inconvenience whatever arose from it. Nor when the Teft act was made was any evil dreaded from the Proteftant Diffenters. Nay they themselves most zealously concurred in paffing it. The danger then was from the Catholics only, on account of the next heir to the crown being a Catholic. Before this, viz. in 1661, mere party spirit, and not any regard to the safety of the state, had given birth to the Corporation Act. If these Acts be really neceffary in England, they must be much more fo in Ireland, where the church establishment is much weaker than it is here, not more than one in ten of the inhabitants of that country being of it; and yet in this very reign, viz. A.D. 1779, the Test Act has been repealed there; and though, according to Mr. Madan, the church must necessarily have fallen with it, it ftill exifts, and there is even lefs danger of its being overturned than before. Because the Diffenters, being conciliated, and put into good humour by the measure, are lefs than ever difpofed to be hoftile to the church. Being, in all civil matters, equally favoured by government with the members of the established church, and not lying under the reproach of being unfit to be trusted with power, though they have not in fact any more power than they had before, they confider themselves as in a more respectable fituation, and are difpofed to be contented with it; leaving the clergy to manage their own affairs, and enjoy all their emoluments as before. But when men are treated like dogs, they will fnarl at those who hold hold the whip over them, whether they receive a blow or not. You will naturally afk, how came the church to be fo liberal to the Diffenters in Ireland, and fo hoftile to them in England. I will explain the whole in a very few words. There was no liberality in the cafe. But the Diffenters in Ireland are much more numerous in proportion to the members of the establishment in that country than they are in this; and therefore, notwithstanding the measure must have appeared much more hazardous (which is the plea for refufing us) the court, and of course the clergy, did not think it prudent to refuse their request. There were no meetings of the clergy on the occafion, no fuch fermons as Mr. Madan's were preached, and lords and commons were, I believe, unanimous in paffing the bill. But here the court. is at prefent against us, and the clergy (though the church. would not receive a fhadow of harm from the measure, as the experience of Ireland for the laft eleven years abundantly proves) indulge themselves in fhewing their dislike to us, because they can do it with impunity. For the fame reasons we were twice repulfed when we petitioned to be relieved from the obligation we were most unreasonably laid under to subscribe the greater part of the articles of your church, a church with which we have nothing to do, and from which we receive no emolument. But the court, wishing to fhew fome favour to the Catholics; and fearing left a clamour would be raised by the more fober part of the nation, if fomething was not done for us too, thought proper at length to grant our request; and then nothing more was heard of any oppofition from the clergy. Such is the policy of a court, and fuch the operation of the fundamental principle of passive-obedience, and non-refiftance in the clergy, ever true to the terms of their alliance with the ftate. If thefe Acts were repealed, there would be no visible change whatever in the afpect of public affairs, respecting church or state. It would not, in fact, give any additional power power to the Diffenters, nor, if it did, could that power be employed to the injury of the church. It is not reason, or even felf defence, or felf interest, that has driven the generality of your clergy to this violence against us; but merely bigotry and paffion. Many men of the best understanding among them clearly fee this, and wonder as much as I do, at the general infatuation. Befides, is it for the credit of the church of England to suppose it to be naturally weaker, and to stand in more need of foreign support, independent of a voluntary attachment to it, as founded in truth, than other established churches? No other national church (and they are found in almost all parts of the christian world) has any fuch fecurity as this, or has ever found the want of it. Mr. Madan, indeed, quotes Dean Swift, p. 26, in saying that "in Holland none are admitted into civil offices who do not conform to the "legal worship." But Swift*, like the late Dr. Johnson, debased a good natural understanding with the loweft bigotry. He neither knew, nor cared to know, any thing : * The contemptuous manner in which Swift always mentions Dif fenters, as if they were not even of the human species, fhews the defpicable narrowness of his mind and yet a paffage of his writings, in which this is the most confpicuous, is quoted with approbation by Mr. Madan. The offer of their abilities,' fays Mr. Madan, p. 26, integ• rity and learning, and all that may be intended by their quick-fighted ' talents' (alluding in a fneer to an expression in one of my publications) ⚫ for the service of the state, will be fufficiently noticed by a fhort extra& • from Swift. "Their zeal, fays he, is commendable, and when employments go a begging for want of hands, they fhall be fure to have "the refufal; only upon condition that they will not pretend to them upon maxims which equally include Atheists, Jews, Turks, Infidels, "and Heretics, or which is ftill more dangerous, even Papists them"felves." This is the contempt of the contemptible, which fhews the writer not worthy to rank with any of the claffes of men he here enumerates. When I read fuch stuff as this, and find it the language of this day, as much as it was in the time of Sacheverel, I blefs God that I was born a free Diffenter, not manacled by the chains of so debafing a fyftem as that of the church of England, and that I was not educated at Oxford or Cambridge. My education, in this at least unspeakably more liberal than theirs, has taught me to efteem Papifts, Jews, Turks, Infidels, Heretics, and even Atheists if they be honest men, and the Churchof-England-man too who defpifes me. It is because he has been no better taught, or because God has not given him a better understanding. about 1 about the Diffenters, and he paid no regard to truth or de- It is plain, however, that Mr. Madan was not able to Is there not an established church in Scotland, as well as in England? and does not that subsist yery well without any Test Act, even with the disadvantage of its king being of another religion? Yet they allow that king to employ whom he pleases in all offices of truft and power in Scotland, without shewing any fear for the fafety of their national religion. It is plain, therefore, that the Scoth clergy, who have never made any complaint or remonstrance on the subject, have far more confidence in the goodness and stability of their ecclefiaftical establishment than the English clergy, who are fo miferably and fo univerfally panic ftruck, have with respect to theirs. You, brave Englishmen, must be ashamed of fuch cowards. But what is this Teft Act, and what can it do for your church, or for any church? If it cannot be fupported with out ช่า out it, I am very fure that it cannot with it. For it is no more than a cobweb, which any fly may break through. In order to qualify for a civil office, it requires that a person should receive the communion according to the rites of the church of England. But this is what most Diffenters now do without violating their confcience at all. You see that both Mr. Ruffell and Mr. Taylor in your own neighbourhood, have done it, and in confequence hold the office of justice of the peace. These are men of honour and principle, proper to be trusted with any degree of power. But bad men, against whom alone you ought to be upon your guard, even Atheists, men of no religion, who laugh at your church, and who will fupport it no longer than it supports them, make no fcruple at all of conforming to this Test. They are ready to kneel at the rails of your chancel whenever they are called upon, and laugh in their fleeve all the time. To make this Teft any thing like a real guard to the church, and exclude from offices of truft and power, all who are not bona fide members of it, you should infift upon their communicating habitually, and not only that, but on their attending your public worship every Lord's-day. Whereas, the fact is, that very few perfons in any confiderable office attend the service of your church at all, except when the duties of their office abfolutely require it. This Test Act, which you now make your sheet anchor, the main pillar within the church, and the great buttress without it, can in fat do nothing for it. It only excludes fome fcrupulously confcientious men, who in general are not much qualified for public bufinefs, and who might be very innocently admitted into any place. We chiefly object to this act because that it is difgraceful to us, though much more fo to the country which impofes it. The existence of this A&t is not of a piece with the liberality of the country in other refpects. For Diffenters may be peers, or they may fit in the house of commons. There, you fay, there is no danger from them, because their number is inconfiderable. But would not that be the very fame |