at for their Pains. For that Governor, whofoever he is, who preferrs his Enemy, makes him thereby not at all the less an Enemy, but much more formidably so, than he was

before.

And whereas yet farther, there have been such vehement Invectives against Court-Penfioners; let the People, who have been fo warmly plyed with this Stuff, be carefully informed, that those very Men, who raife and spread these Invectives, do not indeed (as they pretend) hate Penfioners so much, but that they love Pensions more; and have no other Quarrel to them, but that any should be thought worthy to receive them but themfelves.

And then, as for the next Clamour, about the Perfecution, and Oppreffion of Tender Confciences. Let every confcientious Preacher throughly and impartially inftruct his Congregation, that there is no fuch thing; that from the very Restauration of the King, they have been all along allowed (and that by a Law made for that Purpose) to worship God after their own Way in their own Families with five more Persons besides: fo that all the Oppreffion and Perfecution of these Men amounts but to this, that the Government will not fuffer them to meet in Troops, Regiments, and Brigades; and fo, form themselves into an Army, and

under Colour of Worshipping God, to muster their Forces, and shew the Government how ready they are, when occasion serves, for a Battle: fo that in Truth it is not so much Liberty of Conscience, as Liberty from Conscience, which these Men contend for. Likewife let the faithful Minister teach his People, that, as the main Body of the Nation hates and abhorrs Popery with the utmost Aversion; so that old stale Pretence of the Danger of its being every Day ready to return and break in upon us, while this general Aversion to it continues, and the Laws against it stand in full force (as at present they certainly do) is all of it from Top to Bottom nothing else, but an arrant Trick and Term of Art, and a Republican Engine to rob the Church, and rundown the Clergy (the surest Bulwark against Popery); as the very fame Plea had effectually served them for the fame Purpose once before. And lastly, let the Youth of the Nation be made to know, that all the Bustle and Stir raised by Schifmaticks, and Difsenters, against the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England, (which after so much Noise are but three in Number, and those not only very Innocent, but very Rational too) has been intended only for a Blind, and a Cheat upon those Lamentable Tools, the Unthinking Rabble, whom these leading Impostors

are

are still managing and despising at the same Time. For can any Man of Sense imagine, that Those, whose Conscience could serve them to murder their King, (and him the most Innocent, and Pious of Kings) do, or can really fcruple the Use of the Surplice, the Cross in Baptism, or Kneeling at the Sacrament? Alas! they have a Cormorant in their Conscience, which can swallow all this, and a great deal more. But the thing they drive at by this noify, restless Cant, is to get the Power and Revenues of the Church into their Comprehensive Clutches; and according to a Neighbouring Pattern, having first poffefsed themselves of the Church, to make their next Inroads upon the State. I say, It is Power, and Wealth, and nothing else, which these Pretenders design, and push so hard for; and when they have once compassed it, you shall quickly see, how effectually these Men of Mortification will mortify all, who differ from them; and how little Favour and Indulgence they will shew those, who had shewed them so much before. Such is the Cruelty and Ingratitude of the Party.

All which, and the like important Heads of Difcourse, so nearly affecting not only the common Interest, but the very Vitals of the Government, had the Parochial Clergy fre

quently and warmly infifted upon to their refpective

respective Congregations, and to the Younger Part of them especially; such a Course could not, but in a short time, have Unpoisoned their perverted Minds, and rectified their false Notions, to such a Degree, as would in all likelihood have prevented those high Animosities, those Divisions and Discontents, which have given such terrible Shocks both to Church and State, since the late Happy, but never yet duly improved, Restauration.

And now I must draw towards a Close, though I have not dispatched the tenth Part of what I had to say upon this Useful, Copious, and indeed Inexhaustible Subject. And therefore for a Conclusion, I have only two Things more to add, and by way of Request to you, Great Men; you who are Persons of Honour, Power and Interest in the Government; and, I hope, will shew to what great and good Purposes you are so.

1. And the first is. That you would employ the utmost of this your Power, and Interest, both with the King and Parliament, to suppress, utterly to suppress and extinguish, those Private, Blind, Conventicling Schools or Academies of Grammar and Philofophy, set up and taught secretly by Fanaticks, here and there all the Kingdom over. A Practice, which, I will undertake to prove, looks with a more Threatning Aspect upon the Government, than any

one

one Fanatical or Republican Encroachment made upon it besides. For this is the direct and certain way to bring up, and perpetuate a Race of Mortal Enemies both to Church and State. To derive, propagate, and immortalize the Principles and Practices of Forty One to Posterity, is Schism and Sedition for ever, Faction and Rebellion in Secula feculorum; which I am sure no Honest English Heart will ever say Amen to. We have, I own, Laws against Conventicles; but believe it, it would be but Labour in Vain to go about to suppress them, while these Nurferies of Disobedience are suffered to continue. For those first and early Aversions to the Government, which these shall infuse into the Minds of Children, will be too strong for the clearest After-Convictions, which can pass upon them, when they are Men. So that what these Under-ground Workers have once planted a Bryar, let no Governor think, that by all the Arts of Clemency, and Condescenfion, or any other Cultivation whatsoever, he shall be able to change into a Rofe. Our Ancestors, to their great Honour, rid the Nation of Wolves, and it were well, if (notwithstanding their Sheeps Cloathing) the Church could be rid of them too; but that neither will, nor can ever be, so long as they shall be fuffered to breed up their Litters amongst us. Good