lic, the Author has not concerned himself to inquire. After an exiflence of seven years, it is natural to conclude, the book has fubmitted to the fate of many others that have not rifen above the line of mediocrity, and is gone, is Toy TOTO TO ido; which may be better or worfe according as the purchafer or the vender might be disposed to inter it with more or lefs ceremony.

By one or other of thefe, complaints were made, that full justice had not been done to fome writers of note, who were pointed out to the Author, as equally worthy of the attention of the public, with thofe he had diftinguished in his collection. To this remonstrance he gave car, and determined at length to review fuch of these as feemed to him more especially to deferve the pains; and he hath ac cordingly felected, for the reader's farther contemplation, fome fentiments of William Tyndall, Anthony de Dominis, and Thomas White, the last of whom hath travelled a road, in which, as far as appears to the Author, none have gone before him, or followed him.

Perhaps the Author might have taken in two or three more of the writers of the laft century, had he not thought, that an efpecial refpect was due to fome great names, and a portion of compaffion to fome little ones, whofe publications have appeared fince the firft edition of his book, and the room taken up by thefe, is juft as much as he thought it neceffary to employ in the prefent exhibition.

The importance of the fubject hath been fo very differently eftimated by different writers, that there is no faying under what denomination they who take, what the orthodox call, the wrong fide of the question, may now be claffed. It is believed, they are yet ranked among heretics and enemies of the Church; for though they alledge, that the Church has thought proper to expunge an article of religion which anathematifed their doctrine, they are ftill urged with fome expreffions in the Liturgy, importing, that the foul exifs in joy and felicity, after being delivered from the burden of the flesh; and to this the foul fleepers are reminded, they must have fubfcribed (if Clerks or Graduates) as well as to the Thirty-nine Articles. And, if I mittake not, a zealous brother (a ftrenuous adverfary to religious curiofity) hath lamented, that the revival of this herefy hath been greatly encouraged, if not wholly occañoned, by the difmiffion of the article above-mentioned: hence, for ought we know, an additional argument may be formed for inforcing fubfcription to the prefent fet, as well as a complete juftification of thofe who fo vigorously oppofed a late Petition, praying relief from fuch fubfcription.

For an answer to thefe important confiderations, the Author is contented to refer the objectors to fuch of their more benevolent brethren, as are inclined to reprefent fubfcription to the Thirtynine Articles and the Liturgy, as a mere mechanical Manœuvre, to which the Church and the Law may affix what internal character they think fit. Perhaps it may not be impoffible to point out fubfcribers, (trenuous oppofers too, of the faid Petition) who have ftrayed as far upon paper, from the genuine fenfe of the Articles and the Liturgy in other doctrines, fufficiently authenticated by them, as the SoulSleepers, fo called, have done in fupporting their particular opinion. It ought, however, to be esteemed a great bleffing to the literary republic, that liberal-minded men of genius, with very different ideas

of

of church-difcipline and church fecurity, have, in their feveral controverfies, entered freely into the merits of the caufe in agitation, without too fcrupulous a regard to established forms and fyftems, to which many of them, notwithstanding, profefs a molt devoted at

tachment.

The late Petitioners may poffibly be of opinion, that a little fincerity or confiftency in thefe matters would neither have enfeebled nor difgraced the performances of these learned authors, fome of which, in other refpects, are highly valuable. It is, however, an incident of no fmall advantage to the caufe of Truth and religious Liberty, that fo many confiderable writers fhould, with their own pens in their own hands, recollect that they are PROTESTANTS, a circumftance that may be easily overlooked, when a gentleman, in a hurry, borrows the pen of my Lord's chaplain or fecretary.

The Author of thefe papers hath been long ufed to think, that the cause which the enfuihg Hiftory will be found to favour, has very visible merits, both in illustrating the real effects of our Redeemer's miffion, and in eftablishing the authority of the written records of it, against the claims, interpretations, and decrees of Popery, which he is for attacking at the very root, without the fear of digging up any plant which our heavenly Father hath planted, under whatever fpecious complexion human traditions may pretend to be of the celestial family.

It should be a maxim of the reformed Church of ENGLAND, that the farther fhe removes from the doctrine and difcipline of Rome, the ftronger her foundations will be as an evangelical church, and the fafer her temporalties, under the protection of her lawful Prince. It were to be wifhed, that the had not one circumftance in her confitution, either borrowed or copied from the Creeds, Rituals, or Ordinances of the Popish Syftem. The New Teftament would fupply her with whatever the might want of thofe kinds, for the faith, the worship, or the government of a Christian church.

This indeed, as times go, is but a kind of unclerical wifb, and from the strict conformists to the prefent theological fathions, may perhaps derive upon the man who avows it, the appellation of AN OVER ZEALOUS PROTESTANT, a term however which comes with no great propriety, as a term of reproof, from a writer who hath demonstrated upon the mott unquestionable evidence, that every Papift is bound by his principles to defroy every Proteftant, and to break the most folemn covenants he may enter into with people of that denomination, wherever and whenever he may do either with impunity.'

Befide a great number of alterations in the work, throughout, the Author has now continued his review of the writers in this controverfy (to many of whom his motto is justly applicable) from the year 1765 to 1770 inclufive. We fhall felect a paffage or two, from fome of the additional chapters, for the entertainment of our Readers.

In chap. xxviii. after having, in the preceding chapter, given fome fmart correction to the Bishop of G-r, for his

• Much of the SouL they talk, but all awry.

MILTON.

ftrictures

ftrictures on the doctrine of the Sleep of the Soul, he proceeds to an examen of what the late Archbishop Secker has advanced on the natural Immortality of the Soul, in his 16th Lecture on the Church Catechifm. To this examination he prefixes fome obfervations on the ill fuccefs of his Grace's apologifts for his education, and intolerant principles.

Archbishop Secker, fays he, had been bred among the Proteftant Diffenters of the Prefbyterian denomination; and continued long enough a member of their community, to have fixed his principles on their fyftem, both of doctrine and difcipline; for it does not appear that he left them till he was admitted a fcholar of Exeter College in Oxford, in 1721, which, if he was born in 1693 or 94, must have been in the 27th or 28th year of his age.

Never man, our Author thinks, had more miferable apologists than Archbishop Secker. Dr. Nowell had faid in his anfwer to Pietas Oxonienfis, that his Grace "was admitted Gentleman Commoner of Exeter College in April 1721, being then 20 (instead of 28) years old." The author of Goliath Slain, p. 29, is inclined to fufpect, that this was a defigned miftake of Dr. Nowell's, notwithstanding his correction of it in the Errata, for reafons there given. What fays Dr. Nowell to this?" So it ftands, fays he, in the matriculation book, on the authority of which I inferted it," and then he gives the extract from the faid book, p. 50, of his 2d edition. This indeed is exculpating himself, but it is at the expence of his client. The matriculation book is a public record, in which we muft, for the honour of the University, fuppofe the entries are made with the utmost exactness; and the fufpicion of falfification will naturally fall upon the perfon matriculated, who in the prefent cafe might be defirous of concealing from the Oxford men, that he had been fo long a Diffenter.

When Dr. Secker became Archbishop of Canterbury,' we are told that his friends and dependents thought it neceffary to reprefent, that his connections with the Diffenters had been extremely loofe and unconfined. For this purpose they afferted, "that he never took Prefbyterian orders, or offered himself to be a Diffenting minifter, nor ever received the communion in any other than the eftablished church *.

There were however fome perfons living not many years ago, who pretended to remember, that one Mr. S- -r preached a probation fermon to a Dillenting congregation fomewhere in Derbyshire +, which implied a design at least of engaging in the ministry. On the other hand, if his Grace never received the communion among the Diffenters, he must never have received it till he was 28 years of age, which has the appearance of an objection to the ordinance itfelf, rather than to the mode of adminitring it among the Diffenters. And indeed his Grace's preferring the medical profeffion to the evangelical, has, more than once, been afcribed to fcruples, wherein modes and forms were not the only things confidered: concerning

* Biographia Britannica, Vel, vi, Part. ii. Art. BUTLER [Jofeph] Rem. [D] note (9). f Belfover,'

which nothing, I think, can be inferred, but that he did well to exercise his own judgment in chufing either his creed or his profeffion, and in rectifying his choice from time to time, as often as his confcience in the one cafe, or his prudence in the other, fuggefted to him that he had been mistaken, and had chofen amifs.

If indeed, after he had made his laft option, he discovered an inclination to abridge others of that liberty which he himself had taken, it might be inferred, that his Grace had not been equally fincere in his feveral tranfitions from one Confeffion of Faith, from one mode of Difcipline, or from one Profeffion to another; and that human policy had a fhare either in fome of his own converfions, or in his endeavours to inforce conformity upon others to that fyftem fa which he himself thought fit finally to fet up 1. • Be

It is to this last point that his Grace's advocates fhould have confined their apologies and defences, and have denied, and, if they could, falfified the facts from which his Grace's intolerant principles have been inferred with high probability, Inftead of this, what do they? Why, truly, to fhew how fit he was to be Arch. bishop of Canterbury, they content them felves with proving how little he had been of a Diffenter, and what is ftill more ridiculous, how little he had been of a Surgeon, What would the world have cared for all that, if his Grace had worthily fulfilled the duties of a truly CHRISTIAN paftor at the head of a PROTESTANT cherch? Or who, in that cafe, would have objected to him, either his early education among the Diffenters, or his medical defignation? If it had not been objected to certain alpirants to the miniftry (in vindication of a cruel expulfion, of which his Grace was fuppofed not to be unconscious) that they had been bred to mean occupations, I am inclined to think it had never been mentioned in print, that his Grace was educared in the profeffion of a Man-midrife. [See Pietas Oxonienfis, 1st edition, p. 19 ] Bat this fecret having taken air, it then became neceffary for his Grace's friends to fay fomething to it, to prevent the rigid Canonifts from being fcandalized. Accordingly Dr. Nowell, in his anfwer to Pietas Oxonierfis, p. 49, ed. 2, exhibited a narrative faid by him to be drawn up with the Archbishop's own hand,, wherein it is acknowledged, that "his Grace had attended one course of Lectures in Midwifty at Paris.” This injudicious step, (which, by the way, was afcribed to his Grace's declining fa culties) gave occafion to the fhrewd and fenfible author of Strictures on Dr. Natuell's Arfwer to Pietas Oxonienfis, to obferve," that there is, in a course of practical lec tures on Midwifry, more dirty work to pass through, than is annexed to the business either of a weaver, barber, or tapfter." p. 38. His Grace having likewise certified, that he attended thofe lectures without in ending to prace that or any other branch of Surgery," mention was made, from another quarter, of a Latin tract, intituled, De Partu difficili, where the proficiency of the writer appeared to be far beyond the accomplishments of a man who had only studied that branch theoretically. What was all this to the public? And how invidious and impertinent would fuch reflections have appeared, if his Grace had lent a compaffionate ear to the petition of Mr. Crove, one of the expelled fludents, or if in anfwer to a letter faid to have been addressed to him by the expellers, his Grace had fignified his difapprobation of their proceedings, which indeed were condemned by every true friend to religious liberty in the kingdom? [See, Goliath Slain, p. 66, and a Letter to Dr. Nowell by the author of Pietar Oxonienfis, p. 40, 41. Again, that his Grace was bred among the Diffenters, had never been remembered to his difadvantage, had not his Grace required fubfcription and retractation, without any warrant er authority, with respect to opinions no otherwife cenfurable than as they did not agree with his own fyftem. One of thefe cates related to the doctrine of an intermediate ftate, which had been controverted in print by a learned and ingenious Gentleman, who had afterwards occafion to apply to his Grace for a difpenfation in order to hold a fecond living. His Grace's behaviour upon that occafion was fuch, that one of his advocates thought it neceflary to apolovize for it in a Monthly Magazine. The circumftances, though not unknown to me, I take not upon me to give. The worthy Sufferer is ftill living, and best qualified to judge

Be that as it may, in his Grace's fituation, it had furely been his wisdom to have kept his hand off paper upon all fuch points as are exceptionable only as they are not conformable to the common notions of men, who have no better reafon for their attachment to them, than the mere reputation of orthodoxy, unless his Grace had abilities to fupport them, as his brother of G- -r has attempted to do, in the way of paradox and buffoonry.

To go into a difquifition of the nature of the feparate foul, with no other materials than the hackneyed ones, employed and blunted in the hands of every minute effayift, and frothy declaimer on the fubject, must give fufpicions, that his Grace was urged to the conteft, by no other motive than the expediency of fupporting the fyftem of the Church at all events, fufpicions but too probably confirmed by the feebleness of his Grace's operations in his 16th lecture, which indeed appear to be below the mediocrity even of Goddard, Steffe, Morton, and the rest of the lower clafs of writers, whofe abilities could not be fuppofed to come in any competition with his Grace, if one thoufandth part of what his panegyrifts have faid of his Grace's talents, were true.'

Our Author now proceeds, with his ufual tartnefs and feverity, to examine his Grace's doctrine with regard to the natural Immortality, and to the Seat, of the Soul; but for the arguments of either party we must refer to the book. Mr. B. concludes this chapter with the following reflection:

Every man who loves his country, must wish to fee the great of fices in church and ftate filled with able as well as upright men. And it cannot but mortify a well wither to the public, to find an

1

how far it is expedient, e ther to publish, or fupprefs them. With respect to another cafe, I am not under the like reftraint; and shall therefore give it just as it was tranfmitted to me. "When the late Mr. W. a clergyman of Kent, came to the Archb shop for a difpenfation to hold a fecond living, his Grace took occafion to examine him upon the fubject of miracles, with regard to their duration in the church after the days of Chrift and his Apoftles. Mr. W. frankly told him his opinion, that miracles ceafed after the times of the Apostles, and the spreading of the Gospel through the Roman empire. The Archbishop would have it, that they continued fome centuries afterwards, and infifted on his retracting his affertion in a formal writing under his hand." Now what authority had his Grace from any part of the conftitu tion of the Church of England, for exercifing this pontifical tyranny over the confciences of thefe two Gentlemen, with respect to either of thefe points? Is the Church of England explicit in any of her forms of doctrine, either concerning an intermediate flate, or the duration of miraculous pervers in the Church after the days of the Apoftles? Indeed an Inquifitor of heretical pravity in the Church of Rome, would have an intereft in plaguing and forcing retractations from men who thus fapped the foundations of purgatory and faint-worship, and the credit of those monftrous Legends, ' by which thefe infamous Craftfmen have their wealth. But nothing can be a greater reproach to the Protestant Church of England than to fuppole, the puts it into the power of any of her Governors to lay down arbitrary pofitions in theology, under the notion of preferving orthodoxy, and then to vex and diftrefs thofe who refuse to agree with them, and that from a conviction in their own minds, that fuch positions have no grounds either in fcripture or reafon. Thefe indeed are inquifitorial features which Strike through the thickest varnish his Grace's ingenious Biographers can plaister over. his natural complexion. And after these manœuvres got wind, is it any marvel that it should be remembered, his Grace was a Profelyte, and one of that zealous fort who are eager to prove the fincerity of their converfion, by perfecuting all who are lefs pliable to their politics,”

eminent