"Mr. Speaker, he is a great stranger in "Ifrael, who knows not, that this kingdom "hath long laboured under many and great " oppreffions both in religion and liberty; " and his acquaintance here is not great, or his " ingenuity lefs, who does not know and ac"knowledge, that a great, if not a principal "caufe of both these hath been fome bishops, ❝and their adherents.

"Mr. Speaker, a little fearch will ferve to "find them to have been the deftruction of "unity under the pretence of uniformity, to "have brought in fuperftition and fcandal "under the titles of reverence and decency, "to have defiled our church by adorning our "church, to have flackened the ftrictness of "that union, which was formerly betwixt us "and those of our religion beyond the fea, an “action as impolitic as ungodly.

"As Sir Thomas More fays of the cafuifts, ❝ their business was not to keep men from finning, but to inform them, quam prope ad "peccatum fine peccato liceat accedere: fo it “ seemed their work was to try, how much of "a papist might be brought in without popery, and to deftroy as much as they could

66

* Rubw, vol. 4. p. 184.

❝ of

"of the gospel without bringing themselves "in danger of being destroyed by law.

"Mr. Speaker, to go yet further, fome of

them have fo induftrioufly laboured to de<duce themselves from Rome, that they have "given great suspicion, that in gratitude they "defire to return thither, or at least to meet "it half way. Some have evidently laboured "to bring in an English, though not a Roman "popery; I mean not the outfide of it only, "and dress of it, but equally abfolute, a blind "obedience of the people upon the clergy, "and of the clergy upon themselves; and have "oppofed papacy beyond the fea, that they "might fettle one beyond the water: nay, "common fame is more than ordinarily falfe, "if none of them have found a way to recon"cile the opinions of Rome to the prefer"ments of England, and to be so abfolutely,

directly, and cordially papifts, that it is all, "fifteen hundred pounds per annum, can do, "to keep them from confeffing it."

I would not be understood from any thing I have faid of the proteftant clergy to infinuate, that their conduct had any necessary connection with the principles of our eftablished religion: but my defign is only to fhew the ill confequence of throwing fo great a share

of

of power and property into the hands of any set of men, as shall naturally occafion them to have a diftinct intereft from that of the community. And therefore I muft obferve, the prefbyterian minifters difcovered no lefs fondness for power than those of the church. of England, or lefs inclination to opprefs all, who thought differently from them, during that fhort time, in which they vainly imagined every thing was to be carried on according to thofe whimfies, they had formed in their heads.*

It is furprizing to confider how little effect the confideration of the miferies, this kingdom fo lately felt, had upon the minds of the clergy after the reftoration of Charles II. It was to be expected, they would have fhunned. with horror those fteps, which had been found by experience to have expofed their country. to ruin, and have blushed at the bare mention of thofe doctrines, by which they themselves had been fo eminently acceffory thereto.

But compaffion for the fufferings of thei country, and a regard for the rest of their fellow fubjects, weighed very little with them, when put in the ballance with the hopes of preferment

A very good reafon this, against establishing any priefts whatever, or giving them any power at all. The editor.

preferment under a new king, and an irreconcileable hatred to the prefbyterians. They fell into all the maxims and designs of an abandoned, licentious and corrupt court, and extolled the juftness and wisdom of its measures.

Nor did they fhew any greater regard for the religious than civil rights of the kingdom, though the difpofition of those, who were neareft the king, claimed no fmall circumfpection from them in that point. And though they could not but be fenfible of the dangers, which fo evidently threatned religion from a popish fucceffor, yet they were the moft violent exclaimers against the bill of exclufion ; and when it came into the house of lords, moft of the bishops prefent, if not all, voted against it: and with fuch zeal did they run into the humour of the court at that time, that it was observed, they fully verified the proverb in the gospel, "where the carcafe is, the eagles will be ga"thered together."

Nor was the zeal of the clergy for the defigns of the court the overflowings only of an incontinent joy at the king's restoration, which might have engaged their whole attention in fuch a manner, as to prevent fo early + Burnet, p. 482,

* Rajin.

a difcernment of the wrong measures then taken; but when the mafk was quite thrown off, and the king, having quarrelled with his laft parliament, difcovered his refolution never to be cramped with one for the future," the "clergy particularly diftinguished themselves "by hewing their attachment to the princi"ples and maxims of the court, and feemed "to make it their business to furrender to "the king all the liberties and privileges of

the fubjects, and to leave them only an un

limited obedience. According to the prin "ciples publicly preached, no eaftern mo"narch was more abfolute than the king of "England." The conduct of the late parliaments was arraigned, as feditious and treafonable: and, at the archbishop of Canterbury's own motion, the clergy were made the heralds for publifhing the reafons, the king in his declaration pretended he had, for diffolving the parliament, which was to be read in all churches throughout England.

It is ftrange, how prevalent the most abfurd and destructive opinions are over the minds of good and wife men, when propagated as the general fentiments of that body,

* Rapin, vol. 2. p. 725. † Burnet, p. 502.

VOL. II.

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