regal prerogative higher than any writer of the age: however, the good archbishop lived to fee his opinion become univerfal in the kingdom. The bishop goes on, for many pages, with an account of certain facts relating to the publishing his two former volumes of the Reformation; the great fuccefs of that work, and the adverfaries who appeared against it. These are matters out of the way of my reading; only I obferve that poor Mr. Henry Wharton, who hath deferved fo well of the commonwealth of learning, and who gave himself the trouble of detecting fome hundreds of the bishop's mistakes, meets with very ill quarter from his lordship; upon which I cannot avoid mentioning a peculiar method, which this prelate takes to revenge himself upon thofe who prefume to differ from him in print. The bishop of Rochester [x] happened, fome years ago, to be of this number. My lord of Sarum, in his reply, ventured to tell the world, that the gentleman, who had writ against him, meaning Dr. Atterbury, was one upon whom he had conferred great obligations; which was a very generous Chriftian contrivance of charging his adverfary with ingratitude. But it seems the truth happed to be on the other fide, which the doctor made appear in fuch a manner as would have fi-` lenced his lordship for ever, if he had not been writing-proof. Poor Mr. Wharton, in his grave, is charged with the fame accufation, but with circumstances the most aggravating that malice and [x] Dr. Atterbury. fome fomething else could invent: and which I will no more believe than five hundred paffages in a certain book of travels [a]. See the character he gives of a divine and a scholar, who fhortened his life in the fervice of God and the church. Mr. Wharton defired me to intercede with Tillotfon for a prebend of Canterbury. I did fo; but Wharton would not believe it; faid, he would be revenged, and fo writ against me. Soon after, he was convinced I had spoke for him; faid, he was fet on to do what he did, and, if I would procure any thing for him, he would difcover every thing to me. What a spirit of candour, charity and good-nature, generosity and truth, fhines through this ftory, told of a most excellent and pious divine, twenty years after his death, without one fingle voucher ! Come we now to the reasons, which moved his lordship to fet about this work at this time. He could delay it no longer, because the reafons of his engaging in it at firft seemed to return upon him. He was then frightened with the danger of a popish fucceffor in view, and the dreadful apprehenfions of the power of France. England hath forgot thefe dangers, and yet is nearer to them than ever; and therefore he is refolved to awaken them with his third volume; but, in the mean time, fends this introduction to let them know they are afleep. He then goes on in describing the condition of the kingdom after fuch a manner, as if deftruction hung over us by a fin VOL. IX. [a] Burnet's Travels. P gle gle hair; as if the pope, the devil, the pretender, and France were juft at our doors. When the bishop published his history, there was a popish plot on foot: the duke of York, a known papist, was prefumptive heir to the crown: the houfe of commons would not hear of any expedient for fecuring their religion under a popish prince, nor would the king, or lords, confent to a bill of exclufion: the French king was in the height of his grandeur, and the vigour of his age. At this day, the prefumptive heir, with that whole ilJuftrious family, are proteftants; the popish pretender excluded for ever by feveral acts of parliament; and every person in the smallest employment, as well as the members of both houses, obliged to abjure him. The French king is at the lowest ebb of life; his armies have been conquered, and his towns won from him for ten years together; and his kingdom is in danger of being torn, by divifions, during a long minority. Are these cases parallel? Or are we now in more danger of France and popery, than we were thirty years ago? What can be the motive for advancing fuch falfe, fuch deteftable affertions? What conclufions would his lordship draw from fuch premiffes as these? If injurious appellations were of any advantage to a cause (as the style of our adversaries would make us believe) what appellations would those deserve, who thus endeavour to fow the feeds of fedition, and are impatient to fee the fruits? But, faith he, the deaf adder floppeth her ears, let the charmer charm never fo wifely. True, my lord, there are, indeed, too many adders in this nation's bofom; adders in all fhapes and in all habits, whom neither the QUEEN nor parliament can charm to loyalty, truth, religion, or honour. Among other inftances, produced by him, of the dismal condition we are in, he offers one which could not easily be gueffed. It is this, that the little factious pamphlets, written about the end of king Charles the fecond's reign, lie dead in shops, are looked on as waste paper, and turned to pafteboard. How many are there of his lordship's writing, which could otherwife never have been of any real service to the publick? Hath he, indeed, fo mean an opinion of our taste to send us, at this time of day, into all the corners of Holborn, Duck-lane, and Moorfields, in queft after the factious trash published in those days, by Julian Johnson, Hickeringil, Dr. Oates, and himself? His lordship, taking it for a postulatum, that the QUEEN and miniftry, both houses of parliament, and a vast majority of the landed gentlemen throughout England, are running headlong into popery, layeth hold on the occafion to describe the cruelties in queen Mary's reign: an inquifition fetting up faggots in Smithfield, and executions all over the kingdom. Here is that, fays he, which thofe, that look towards a popish successor, must look for. And he infinuates through his whole pamphlet, that all, who are not of his party, look towards a popish fucceffor. These he divides into two parts, the tory laity, and the tory clergy. He tells the former: although they have no religion at all, but refolve to change with every wind and tide; yet they ought to have compaffion on their countrymen and kindred. Then he applies himself to the tory clergy, affures them, that the fires revived in Smithfield, and all over the nation, will have no amiable view, but leaft of all to them, who, if they have any principles at all, must be turned out of their livings, leave their fami lies, be hunted from place to place into parts beyond the feas, and meet with that contempt with which they treated foreigners, who took fanctuary among us. This requires a recapitulation, with fome remarks. First, I do affirm, that in every hundred of professed atheists, deifts, and focinians in the kingdom, ninety-nine, at least, are ftaunch thoroughpaced whigs, entirely agreeing with his lordship in politicks and discipline; and therefore will venture all the fires of hell, rather than finge one hair of their beards in Smithfield. Secondly, I do likewise affirm, that those whom we ufually understand by the appellation of tory, or high-church clergy, were the greatest sticklers against the exorbitant proceedings of king James the fecond, the best writers against popery, and the most exemplary sufferers for the established religion. Thirdly, I do pronounce it to be a moft falfe and infamous fcandal upon the nation in general, and on the clergy in particular, to reproach them for treating foreigners with haughtinefs and contempt. The French Hugonots are many thousand witnesses to the contrary; and I wish they deferved |