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that had ever been faid upon the subject before. I knew not thro' what foul or crooked channels the course of the stream had been turned, but was very certain that the well-head was pure, and thence only I therefore determined to draw. From this circumftance I alfo entertained fome hope, that, being totally unbiaffed, I might poffibly strike out some new lights; or, where I should accidentially agree with any former writers, put an old argument in fo different a manner, that it fhould convey a new impreffion, and convince fuch of my readers as affect novelty; for of novelty, if that be a recommendation, they have undoubtedly a chance, as all contained in my work is my own, whether any of it may have been stated before or not.

May I have leave to say, without blame, that having been born a gentleman, a farther difficulty oppofed my refolution to publish; the inconfiftency of fuch doctrines as I was about to maintain, with the modifh practices and easy principles of the polite world fuggested itself to me; why then, it often occurred to me, why muft I be fo fingularly nice and fcrupulous as not to comply with what men of fashion accommodate themselves to? why disturb others, and not give way to a more chearful way of thinking; why promulgate that veneration for a Deity which a free communication with the world may dif perfe or remove? and why render myself obnoxious to men who must deteft the doctrines which restrain their will, and not rather wait, patiently for a change in the morals of the age? Thefe confiderations altogether were of weight to divert me for a while from the thought of publication; not that I now juftify myfelf therein: yea rather I condemn myfelf, and have at length decided to offer to mankind those arguments which have already afforded conviction to myself *.

* See Apology, p. 210, of which this paragraph is only a parody.

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am very confcious that my ftyle, would admit of great improvement; but if it be confidered that I did not fee Mr. Lindsey's book till late in the month of January, I fhall readily be forgiven by the ingenuous and candid reader, who will preceive that I have employed that time in the purfuit of matter, which, had I lefs regard to an argument of fo high importance to him and to myself, I might have bestowed in polishing a lefsconvincing work. But why then should I not have withheld it longer from the world, and rendered it better able to fuftain their criticifm? For this brief reafon: a deadly poifon has been administered to the publick, I have hafted to prepare the antidote, and have not paused to fugar over the brim of the veffel in which I offer it to their lips. He must love the poison who rejects the antidote that is not feasoned to his palate. I am as fenfible of the charms of language as my faftidious reader may be, and could perhaps, even without his affiftance, have rendered my own style more agreeable to his ear, and greatly fhortened what I have been forced, thro' hafte, to exprefs in unselected terms. If, however, he be fuch a man as cannot pardon me, I do not afk his pardon.

I fhall here take occafion to explain what I have written with respect to Mr. Lindsey himself. I have heretofore confidered him in the character of a Sectary and Writer only, and confequently have been under a neceffity of speaking concerning him in terms, which I have always uttered with regret. I am not, however, going to retract a single fyllable which can only affect him in his public character; but, on the contrary, more fummarily to avow the fubftance of what I have already laid down. As a Sectary then, I think he would be a dangerous man, had he not himself diminished

*I did not fee it till the 21st of January, and the first edition of This volume was finished from the press May 5, 1774.

nished his importance by becoming the advocate of his own tenets; for as a Writer, I confider him to be perfectly harmless; yet ftill from that character, in which I fhall henceforward addrefs him, I dread the Schifmatick, and have therefore oppofed myfelf to a book, which, had it not come from the felf-denying hand of this gentleman, might, for me, have gradually fubfided in its congenial oblivion. His conduct, however, might fupport it for a time; my effort therefore is more expeditiously to difmifs it from existence.

It may look a little quarrel fome, that I cannot let even so much of his book, as corresponds with the title page, pafs without a cenfure. But this gentleman has thought it neceffary to make an apology for the most unexceptionable conduct that he could poffibly have purfued; for a fincere obedience to the dictates of his confcience; for having made a facrifice to what he efteemed the truth, however mistaken; for having looked upon pardon as inconfiftent with the retained offence; and for having convinced mankind that " he had escaped the pollutions of the world by his former knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jefus Christ," 2 Pet. ii. 20. Had he indeed purfued a contrary course, and continued to profefs when he had ceased to believe, then would an apology have been truly neceffary, and we should not perhaps have admitted it to be fatisfactory, though he had even yielded to the importunity of ftronger motives than those which he has refifted. Had his power of doing good been far more extenfive, and had the fubfcription of a doctrine, which he did not believe, afforded his benevolent propenfities an opportunity of propagating the oppofite tenet which he did believe, and think neceffary to be received by all men, not even fo good an end should exempt the means from the charge of falsehood, nor the perpetrator

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from the imputation of holding "the damnable doctrine of doing evil that good may come." Had a dignified character extended his influence ftill wider; had the paftoral office been committed to his hand; and had the emblem of the defcending spirit fat upon him, he could but ill defend himself from the juftice of univerfal condemnation, though thus, meditating, he fhould addrefs his mitre, the symbol of a cloven tongue, "thou art the fymbol of a double tongue, and thou fhalt fanctify duplicity; thou fhalt be my warrant for hypocrify and prevarication; for thee will I keep up all these forms of fubfcribing what I do not believe, till relieved by proper authority, and vefted with dignities without the ncceffity of falfifying, in order to obtain them; for thee I will minifterially comply with what I am not able to remove, and patiently remain in my post, however invidiously misreprefented; for thee, and under thy fanction, I will utter two languages; I will tell a lye for the fake of telling truth; enter into terms for the purpose of infringing them; and comply with fuch propofed conditions as fhall afford me an occafion of fhewing that they ought not to be complied with. At the door of the vineyard I will fay that the wild branches are but the fine luxuriance of nature, and that their growth ought to be encouraged, fo fhall I obtain the power of pruning them away; I fhall create to myself an opportunity of rooting out fome of what I take to be the rankeft weeds, by telling the owner of the vineyard that I think them the most beautiful plants, and engaging that I will diligently cultivate them: thus fhall I trick him into his own advantage, and prove, by having dispensed with truth in order to get admiffion, that his fervice, and not my profit, was the only motive to the fraud, the pious fraud by which I induced him to admit me t." Had Mr. Lindsey,

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See confiderations on the propriety of requiring a fubfcription to articles of faith,

I fay, thus pondering, lulled himself into a hope that none would suspect him of hypocrify and prevarication, he should have found it vain; every whisper would be interpreted into cenfure, and every breeze of opinion, prove a ftorm fufficient to disturb the tranquillity of his foul. Is there any man who can have thus dealt by himself? To him I call to defcend from his throne, to seek for happiness in self-approbation, and for public applause, by confpicuous and exemplary virtue; let him place the mitre upon other brows, and put upon his own "the helmet of falvation." There are men in England who can profefs with fincerity, and maintain what they have profeffed; who do not need the picklock of equivocation, nor the burglary of more open falfehood, to obtain an entrance into the miniftry, from which I thus boldly call, in the name of each man's confcience, upon every person, whether he be Archbishop, Bishop, Prieft, or Deacon, who has fubfcribed with infincerity, or who cannot now overcome fuch fcruples as have been fubfequently conceived, to retire, and follow the worthy example which is afforded to them. by Mr. Lindsey.

As a good man, I honour Mr. Lindfey; as a man ftrenuous in the maintenance of his faith, though I believe it erroneous, I refpect him; and if his understanding were but nearly commenfurate with his honefty, I believe that the church which he has deferted, would have found in him, who is now her weak opponent, an advocate truly able to maintain her caufe; for I do not remember in my life to have met with a man, in whom the excellencies of head and heart had united, who did not submit his own understanding to the word of his Maker, and believe, because that his immutable truth is a fully fufficient ground of faith.

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