I. To the Author of the OCCASIONAL PAPER

SIR,

A

I

MONG your Monthly Entertainments, I read with particular Pleasure your Character of a Proteftant, foon after your fetting out. And as you have drawn Him Proteftant is the Name I hould chufe to be call'd by above all others, except that which the Difciples firft receiv'd at Antioch. I could not like to take my Denomination from any Man upon Earth. My Religion teaches me to call no Man Matter or Rabbi, but Jefus Chrift and it feems one Way of calling Men fo, to be call'd after Them inftead of Chrift. What if I fhould underftand the Scripture the fame Way as it was underfood before me by fome great Man, (Luther, or Calvin, or Arminius, fuppofe)? I do not go into that Senfe because it was any of theirs, but because I apprehend it to be the Mind of Chrift. I might with equal Reafon be made to bear the Names of all thofe, who in the feveral Ages of the Church have been of the fame Mind with me, and understood the Scriptures as I do, as be call'd by the Modern Appellations of a Lutheran, a Calvinist, or an Arminian. For tho I fhall thank any Man for his Help towards underftanding the Bible, I defy his Authority for the Reafon of my Affent. I believe in Chrift, and not ih Luther, or Calvin, or any Body elfe. Since therefore it is Chrift's Authority alone upon which I affent, and he is the only Mafter I will follow in Religion; by confequence I am a Chriftian; and neither to be call'da Lutheran, nor a Calvinist, nor an Arminian, which foever of thofe great Men I may most agree with in my Sentiments.

If

If the Name of Proteftant did not include in ic Chriftianity; or if it imply'd a fervile Submiffion to the Opinions of any Man, or any Number of Men whatfoever; I fhould diflike it as much as any of the reft. But I learn from you, that it means no more than a Primitive Chriftian, with this explicit Addition to his Character, in Honour of Chrift and His Revelation, (occafion'd by the Iniquity of later Times,) that it contains a Proteft against all Impofi tions in Religion, either with reference to Faith or Practice, beyond the Discoveries made in the Scriptures. That the Name is large enough to compre, hend all that embrace Chriftianity, and yet fufficiently limited to admit name befides.

But after all, Sir, have not you put an Arbitrary Senfe upon the Word? May not others with equal Reafon include under this Character All them that agree in an Oppofition to Rome, tho' they deny the very Canon of Scripture? A Pamphlet publifh'd Yefterday *tells us, that All Men are Proteftants in the No tion of his Antagonist, (and that he is not fingular in it,) who are agreed in their Oppofition to the Tyranny, Idolatry, and Superftitions of the Church f of Rome, and that this brings in all that deny the Mysteries of Chriftianity, the Canon of the Holy Scriptures, and the Immortality of the Soul. And a Writer of a higher Size than that trifling Remarker, has labour'd to prove, that it muft either be taken in fuch a Latitude, as to be like Nebuchadnezzar's great Tree, under which Birds of almost all Feathers may neftle; or elfe, that All beside the Lutherans themselves, the Original Protefters, can wear the Name but as a borrow'd Feather. I'll tranfcribe the Paffage, because I fuppofe you had not seen it when you wrote your Character,

* Remarks on the State-Anatomy of Great Britain, p. 33.

tho'

tho' it had been publish'd many Months before. 'You should be particularly careful (fays the Doctor to his Friend) of being impofed upon by the Words • Proteftant Religion: An Expreffion which has of late been very frequent in the Mouths of a certain • Party. For if we confine that Name to any one Sect, as the Word Religion in the fingular Number ⚫ feems to do; then, in its proper genuine Senfe, it fignifies the Lutheran Religion, because the Lutherans were the firft who publickly, in a particular • folemn manner, entred their Proteft againft the Corruptions of the Church of Rome, by which they obtain'd the Name of Proteftants, being fo called from that particular folemn Proteftation, made before all the Eftates of the Empire, in fuch a Manner as was never done by any other Church or Sect. But if we take the Word Proteftant in another Senfe, and as it is commonly understood, to denote any Church, Sect or Perfon, who openly protefts against the Corruptions of the Church of Rome, then we cannot fay the Proteftant Religion in the fingular Number, but muft fay Proteftant Religions in the plural Number. For in this Senfe the Word Proteftant is only Negative, and does not denote of what Religion the Church, Sect or Party fo call'd are, but only what they are not, viz. they are not Papifts. And in this Senfe not only the Lutherans and the Calvinists, but the Anabaptists, Quakers, Muggletonians, Socinians, Deists, nay, and Atheists, all may, and do come under the Denomination of Protestants, as well as the Church of England. So that to say the Protestant Religion, in this Senfe, is nothing but Cant and Jargon, without any diftin& and proper Meaning. And to fay the Protestant Religion in a reftrain'd Senfe, to denote any one

† Brett's Review of the Lutheran Principles, 2d Edit. p. 39.

'Sect

* Sect of Christians who may be call'd by that Name in a fupereminent Manner, as the firft and most 'folemn Protefters against Popery, to whom the Name was given upon account of that particular • Proteftation, fignifies no other than the Lutheran • Religion.

Don't you fee, Sir, how the Doctor has wrefted your beloved Name out of your Hands? Either excluding every Body but the Lutherans from a Right to it, even the Church of England it felf, unless you will allow of different Religions under the common Appellation of Proteftant; or elfe making it a CantTerm, which does not neceffarily fuppofe any thing of Religion. You may be a Deift, or an Atheift, you are told; be of the moft different Religions, or indeed of none at all, and yet be a Proteftant.

If this be fo, thought I, what an Infatuation have the beft Men of our Church been under for above 150 Years, to contend fo earnestly for the Proteft ant Religion,when we have nothing to do with the Name, upon any other Terms, than either having a Religion peculiarly our own fo call'd, or elfe excluding Religion out of the Notion of it? How unhappy were our Chillingworths, our Stillingfleets, and other zealous Advocates for the Proteftant Religion, to write long and learned Treatifes to prove the Proteftant Religion a fafe Way to Salvation, and to give Rational Accounts of it! Were they only doing an Act of Charity to defend the Lutherans? Or did they mean to fet up the Church of England as a Church by it felf? Or did they intend no Service to Religion all the while? Miftaken Men! They thought they were defending Reform'd Chriftianity, as profefs'd by the Church of England in common with others, while they defended the Proteftant Religion: But they wanted this new Light to let them right.

Our Legiflature have run into the fame Error: They have fettled the Crown, in a regular Course,

upon

upon the prefent Illuftrious Houfe which wears it, being Proteftants. They certainly thought This to be a Security to our Religion, as well as our Liberties; and yet never intended to oblige the Perfon who fills the Throne, to be a Lutheran any more than to exclude him on that Account. I will not fay, That this was the very Reason of the Doctor's Paragraph, to diftinguish, if he could, the pleafing Name of Proteftant, out of Reputation; that these Acts of Settlement might have the lefs Force on the Minds of our People: Or, that he would make the Proteftant and the Church-man oppofite Characters, left King George Thould have an Advantage over the Pretender in the Affections of the Church of England, from his being known to be a zealous Proteftant. But the Timing of his Remarks upon His Majefty's Acceffion, and the whole Air of the Book look that way.

The Truth is, Sir, the Doctor, with all his Critical Nicety, does the very Thing which he warns his Friend againft; he plays upon the Word, without confidering the Circumftances of the Story which gave Rife to it.

The Name, indeed, had never been heard of, but for that Accident of Protesting against the Corruptions and Tyranny of Rome, at the Diet of Spires: But when once it was heard of, it was fo well lik'd, that it became as you tell us from Thuanus) the general Name of all Others, who profeffed a Defire of reforming the Corruptions brought into Religion, and on that Account feparated from the Church of Rome. Whence was this general Concurrence in coming under that Denomination? "Tis plain, it was upon a Religious Account, for reforming the Corruptions brought into Religion: Therefore 'tis a vile Slander to comprehend Atheifts and Deifts under the Character. Aye! but don't they fhelter themfelves under the Name? What then! fo they do unAvy der

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