the dedication of an eloquent and incomparable sermon by Cudworth.'

"The scope of this is not to contend for this or that opinion, but onely to perswade men to the Life of Christ, as the pith and kernel of all religion. Without which, I may boldly say, all the severall forms of religion in the world, though we please ourselves never so much in them, are but so many severall dreams: and those many opinions about religion that are every where so eagerly contended for on all sides, where this does not lie at the bottome, are but so many shadows fighting with one another: wherefore I could not think any thing else, either more necessary for Christians in generall, or more seasonable at this time, then to stirre them up to the reall establishment of the righteousnesse of God in their hearts, and that participation of the Divine nature, which the apostle speaketh of. That so they might not content themselves with mere phancies and conceits of Christ, without the Spirit of Christ really dwelling in them, and Christ himself inwardly formed in their hearts; nor satisfie themselves with the mere holding of right and orthodox opinions, as they conceive; whilest they are utterly devoid within of that divine life which Christ came to kindle in men's souls; and, therefore, are so apt to spend all their zeal upon a violent obtruding of their own opinions and apprehensions upon others, which cannot give entertainment to them; which, besides its repugnancy to the doctrine and example of Christ himself, is like to be the bellows that will blow a perpetual fire of discord and contention in Christ's commonwealths: whilest in the mean time, these hungry and starved opinions devoure all the life and substance of religion, as the lean kine, in Pharaoh's dream, did eat up the fat!"

Again, Sir, I call upon you, in the name of Christianity, to oppose with all your heart the MINISTRY of the present day: their DISMISSAL is the interest of religion, and the prayer of ninetenths of the country: a Ministry-concocted of purblind Tories, apostate Whigs, and burnt out Jacobins ;-a mere knot of expedient-mongers, who have originated not one solitary instance of comprehensive policy; whose impotency of judgment is only equalled by impotency of execution; who contain neither the rank, the wealth, nor the talent of their country; but who, with an unexampled and audacious defiance of public opinion, cleave to their places as "dogs stick to a kitchen;" and whose sole support is the countenance of rats, informers, and alarmists. I have not disgraced any party by giving these men any canonical

Preached before the House of Commons, 1647, from 1 John, ii. 3, 4.— See CUDWORTH's Intellectual System, vol. ii. 4to. edit.

description, of Tory, Whig, or Radical; holding them to be a nauseous compound of the worst qualities of all.

If such a Ministry can maintain itself, it can only be by "curbing the Seditious Press ;" and the necessity of this has accordingly been long the burden of their song, supported by a chorus of hole and corner addresses.

I trust, Sir, that if any invasion of the FREEDOM of the PRESS is attempted, either in this or any succeeding Session, you will stand forward, and place the protecting shield of your eloquence and exertion over this telegraph of knowledge-this invincible missionary of Christianity-this 'conservator of the liberties of Christendom! Address to our "Representatives" the nervous language of our immortal poet:-"What should ye do then? should ye suppress all this flowry crop of knowledge and new light sprung up, and yet springing daily in the city? Should ye set an oligarchy of twenty ingrossers over it, to bring a famine upon our minds again, when ye shall know nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel? Believe it, Lords and Commons, they who counsel ye to such a suppressing, do as good as bid ye suppress yourselves."

Here, Sir, I must take my leave: you have been described by a late celebrated female historian, the most popular man in England. I have pointed out to you the only mode in which you can maintain that character: I have concluded an exposé of "Sedition and Blasphemy:" I have, I trust, in some degree at least, vindicated the People. But had blasphemy and sedition really existed among them, I should have counselled you to be yet more jealous of the FREEDOM of the PRESS. I should have called to your mind the character given of Mr. Fox, by the same female eulogist; of that true constancy of integrity and intellect, which "maintained principles in spite of circumstances, and knew how to preserve the household gods of the friends of freedom in the midst of the conflagration !"

I have now, Sir, accomplished a solemn duty. I have written with the intent, and, I trust, in the spirit of Christianity. I would not wish a name to add to or detract from the authority of these Letters follow the light they yield, without heeding the hand that holds it. That they may accomplish the intention of their author, is his most ardent hope-and hasten that promised time, when "HE shall judge among the nations; and shall WORK CONVICTION in many peoples."

1

CHRISTOPHILUS.

Bishop Lowth's Translation of Isaiab, ii. 4.

APPENDIX.

It is the greatest impiety to deprive mankind of liberty in matters of religion, or to hinder them from chusing what Divinity they may chuse to worship; neither man, or God, is desirous of forced service."-TERTULLIAN'S Apologet. chap. 14.

"If we were to use violence in defending the faith, the Bishops would oppose it."-ST. HILARY, b. 1.

Religion by compulsion is no longer religion; it must be by persuasion, and not by constraint. Religion is under no controul, and cannot by power be directed."-LACTANTIUS, b. 3.

"It is a most execrable heresy and crime, to want to drag by force, by blows, by imprisonment, &c. those whom we have not been able to convince by reason."-ST. ATHANASIUS, b. 1.

"Nothing is more contrary to religion than constraint.”—JUSTIN MARTYR, b. 5.

"Shall we persecute those whom God suffers and tolerates ?"-ST. Au

GUSTINE.

"Use not the least violence against the Jews."-Fourth Council of Toledo, 56th Canon.

"Advise, but force not."-Letters of ST. BERNARD.

"We do not pretend to destroy error by force and violence."-Discourse of the Clergy of France to Louis the Thirteenth.

"We have always disapproved of rigorous measures."-Assembly of the Clergy, August 11, 1560.

"Of the same consideration is mending of authors, not to their own mind but ours, that is, to mend them so as to spoil them; forbidding the publication of books, in which there is nothing impious, or against the public interest, leaving out clauses in translations, disgracing men's persons, charging disavowed doctrines upon men, and the persons of the men with the consequents of their doctrine, which they deny either to be true or to be consequent, false reporting of disputations and conferences, burning books by the hand of the hangman, and all such acts, which shew that we either distrust God for the maintenance of his truth, or that we distrust the cause, or distrust ourselves and our abilities."-Liberty of Prophesying, Preface, p. 35.

"If you have been so beloved of Heaven, as to be shown the truth, it has done you a most special favour; but does it become those who have the inheritance of their father, to hate those who are not so blessed?"-Spirit of Laws, b. 25.

"It is with religion as it is with love; commands are nothing, constraint still less; nothing is more independent than love and belief."-AMELOT de la Houssaite on the Letters of Cardinal d'Ossat.

"It is a most barbarous zeal to pretend to plant religion in the heart, as if persuasion could be the effect of constraini."-BOULAINVILLIER'S State of France.

"Experience teaches us, that violence is more likely to irritate than to heal those evils which have taken root in the mind," &c.-DE THOU. Epist. dedicated to Henry IV.

"Violence always makes hypocrites; you cannot persuade, when you proclaim on all sides nothing but menaces."-TILLEMONT'S Ecclesiastical History, vol. 6.

"It appears to be conformable to justice, truth, and right reason, to walk in the track of the ancient church, which never made use of violence to extend and establish its religion."-Remonstrance of the Parliament of Paris to Henry II.

"The exacting by force to any religion, is an evident proof, that the spirit which directs it is a spirit inimical to truth."-DIROIS, Doctor of the Sorbonne, b. vi. c. 4.

"We know that faith comes by persuasion, and is not to controuled.”— FLECHIER, Bishop of Nismes, lett. 19.

"Remember that the disorders of the soul are not to be cured by force and violence."-Cardinal de CAMUS, Pastoral Instruct. 1088.

"No; they must be met by a reason, instructed in the knowledge of things, and fought in their own quarters, and their arms must be turned upon themselves; this may be done, and the advantage is all ours. We have steel and brass for our defence, and they have little else than twigs and bull-rushes for the assault; we have light, and firm ground, and they are lost in smoke and mists; they tread upon bogs and dangerous fens, and reel near the rocks and steeps. And shall we despise our advantages, and forsake them? Shall we relinquish our ground, and our light, and muffle ourselves up in darkness? Shall we give our enemies the weapons, and all the odds, and so endeavour to insure their triumph over us? This is sottishly to betray religion and ourselves."-Essays by GLANVILLE, Chaplain of King Charles II., on Usefulness of Real Philosophy to Religion, p. 42.

"It truly ought, provided it does not trouble the peace and order of the State; for it does not depend on man to believe, or not to believe; but it depends on him to treat with respect the usages and customs of this country and if you say it is a crime not to believe the established religion, you yourselves accuse the first Christians, your fathers, and you would justify those whom you accuse of crime, in having delivered them to the executioners."-LOCKE on Toleration.

"To put men in prison merely on account of their religious belief or persuasion, is a great oppression, and, properly speaking, false imprisonment: to fine them, or take away their estates for that cause, is robbery: to put them to death for not acting against their consciences, is murder. Can any thing be more wicked? It is not, then, difficult to determine whether the folly and absurdity, or tyranny and wickedness, of persecution on account of religion, are greater."-GROTIUS, Epistolarum Amicorum.

"If some men think others are mistaken or erroneous in matters of religion, it is a kind and charitable part, to endeavour, by counsel, argument, and persuasion, to set them right; but all attempts to force them are absurd, because impossible-tyrannical, because unjust."-TOPLADY.

"Now are we to think, that these gentle means of propagating Christianity were proper only for the time of its first appearance, when the church was destitute of the civil power; and, by reason of its opposition to the prevailing religions of the world, drew upon itself the anger and fury of the princes of it; but that the case is now altered, since the kings and rulers,

upon their conversion to the faith, are obliged to subject their sceptres to Jesus Christ: for the change of fortune makes no change in his religion; nor can the alteration of any worldly affairs take away the force and obligations of his commands; for Christ, by his apostles, preached one scheme of doctrines to last for ever. 'Tis true, that kings are to submit their sceptres to Christ, not by forcing men with punishments, in opposition to his commands, to profess, contrary to their conscience and real sentiments, what they believe to be false, and so to fiil his church with hypocrites instead of true believers; but by ordaining equal and just laws, agreeable to the Gospel precepts, for the preservation of the publick tranquillity; and that there may be nothing to obstruct the true spiritual worship of God, and the salvation of souls. This is that most harmless, and yet most powerful, method of propagating the Gospel, agreeable to its nature and genius, by which, in the beginning, it was spread in a short time through the whole world, by a few weak and defenceless persons, instructed only by the Divine Spirit, through the weight of its arguments, and the power of its miracles; and by which it may be still propagated and preserved pure and uncorrupt, against all the attempts of unbelievers and hereticks. For our Lord did not furnish his disciples with carnal weapons to oppose the frauds, impostures, violence, and persecutions of the world; but with spiritual weapons, which, through God, are powerful to bring every imagination into captivity to the obedience of Christ, that they might triumph over the world in the midst of afflictions, by their innocence, simplicity, fortitude, and patience. So far, indeed, was he from ordaining persecutions as the punishment of error, that he commands his church, when suffering persecutions, to pray for those that persecute it. By this means the church in the beginning was founded, and so wonderfully propagated throughout the whole world in its first and purest ages."-LIMBORCH'S History of the Inquisition, vol. i. p. 3.

Lord Kames gives the following parable against persecution, for which he acknowledges his obligations to the ingenious Dr. Franklin :-" And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun. And behold a man bent with age, coming from the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff. And Abraham arose and met him, and said unto him, Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night; and thou shalt rise early in the morning, and go on thy way. And the man said, Nay; for I will abide under this tree. But Abraham pressed him greatly: so he turned and went into the tent: and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, Creator of heaven and earth? And the man answered and said, I do not worship thy God, neither do I call upon his name; for I have made to myself a gud, which abideth always in mine house, and provideth me with all things. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man; and he arose and fell upon the man, and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness. And God called unto Abraham, saying, Abraham, where is the stranger? And Abraham answered, and said, Lord, he would not worship thee, neither would he call upon thy name; therefore have I driven him out from before my face into the wilderness. And God said, Have I borne with him these hundred and ninety and eight years, and nourished him, and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against me; and couldst not thou, who art thyself a sinner, bear with him one night ?". Sketches of the History of Man, vol. iii. 435.

The following extracts are made from an old tract in my possession, of sterling merit, but of the author of which I know nothing, except from the title-page. The reader will not, however, I am sure, regret the time be