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and blew the trumpet of war: if the modern Quakers profefs to Follow his principles, they must allow of war, as one of his principles, taught him, as he pretends, from the Lord God, or they must confider him not infallible, but as an impious blafphemer and impoftor.

May 8th, 1799.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

T. COUNTERMINE.

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S it is fufficiently obvious from the laudable principle on

A which your highly useful Review is conducted, that your

exertions in the cause of religion, and moral truth are prompted by a generous and fincere defire to fupport and preferve the peace and happiness of fociety; I feel myself peculiarly gratified in being able to confult so honourable a defign, by communicating an event which in fome meafure ferves to prove that fuch worthy efforts do not fail of effect.

In a Book-Society established in one of the eastern counties, and confifting of Clergymen of the Eftablished Church, the Monthly Review had long been received and read; its authority was often referred to as introductory of many of the books which constituted their literary collection; and as its influence was corrected by the admiffion of the British Critic, the confidence of the fociety was not often abused some few inftances had occurred before the British Critic fhared its fway, wherein the principles of the members fuffered fome degree of violence from now and then being furprized with a production which in its political and religious tenets did not meet their ideas of Civil and Ecclefiaftical Polity; but notwithstanding they were uniformly attached to that Conftitution of Church and State by which the prefent Government is regulated, they could tolerate fentiments which did not exactly conform to their own; and although they did not embrace them, they were not fo exceptious as to refuse them a portion of their reading.

Since the British Critic has been publifhed it has conftantly Thared in the direction of their literary divifions: this journal was first produced at the beginning of the French revolution, with the avowed design to counteract the revolutionary fentiments of thofe writers, who, mifguided by a mistaken zeal for universal liberty, or impelled by a treacherous inclination to involve the well-modified government of this country in all the licentious diforder of modern republicanism, over-run the prefs with their pernicious doc trines; attempting to take captive the fenfe of the people, and to furprize them into affent by the plaufibility of their tenets.

It was now that the Monthly Review began to unfold itself; its political and religious diffent had already prepared it to meet more than halfway the innovating schemes of thefe writers; the lan guage of its diffent was obferved to grow stronger and more decided, and the partiality of their criticifm became more marked; ftill, however, this fociety refused it not tolerance, aware that the con

ftitutional

ftitutional integrity of the Britfh Critic would always afford a fafe refource and secure dependence; whilft it became a matter of curiofity to trace the powerlefs endeavours of the Monthly to render the well-devifed plan of its antagonist abortive.

At length the Anti-Jacobin appeared, formed upon a more direct and comprehenfive fyftem of detection and defence: the mifchief was increafing, and means of energetic investigation and pofitive conviction became indifpenfible.-Thefe the talents and opportunities of the authors of the Anti-Jacobin could amply fupply: fupe. rior intelligence and extenfive information ftamped its pages with incontrovertible authority.-The Reviews of oppofition became the objects of its deferved reprehenfion, and their falfehoods, their mifrepresentations, their partialities, were expofed to the public eye. It will be almoft fuperfluous to add that the Monthly Review flood convicted with the rest.

Then it was that the Members of this Society perceived how injurious the liberal reception which they had given to this Review was to the caufe of truth: the latitude of opinion which it encouraged in religion, morals and politics, made it of dangerous tendency the circulation which it promoted of books manifeftly planned, conftituted and publifhed to revile, debafe, and if poffible overturn the established orders of this kingdom, rendered it in itfelf fubverfive of that religious, moral, and political reftraint fo effential to preferve focial tranquillity and union.-They referred themselves to its critique; they found the Socinian, the Latitudinarian, the Republican, triumphing in its journals.-A Priestley, a Godwin, a Paine, there found fupporters, advocates; may I not fay, patrons.

It was time then that Clergymen of the Established Church fhould no longer hefitate to evince themfelves the unequivocal affertors of the dignity of their Lord, the defenders of his religion, the upholders of his righteoufnefs, the vindicators of his precepts, the friends of their fellow-fubjects and their King.-The hour of vigilance and decifion was arrived: the queftion was no longer relative, and the Monthly Review was excluded by the unanimous defire of the Society from their literary collection.

They confidered that they were Clergymen of the Establishment, and that befides their pofitive duties of ecclefiaftical and parochial fervice, they had other collateral obligations to acquit themfelves of, the defence of good order, the prefervation of focial comfort: whatever therefore militated against either became the proper ob ject of their censure.

Much of the mifchief which has embroiled fociety has been begun and continued by the circulation of irreligious and immoral writings; and if it be the duty of fuch men to oppose the progrefs of the fentiments profeffed in them, à fortiori, it is their duty to oppofe the authority which recommends them and throws them into circulation.-They cannot, perhaps, however devoutly to be wished, arreft the motion of the heart of the confpiracy, and Lo put a stop to its vital pulfation at once; but they may, they cer

tainly can impede its progrefs, by cutting off fome of the material arteries and fo circumfcribe the extent of its general circulation.Thefe form fome of the moft material of their collateral duties; fupineness arifing from an inactive dependence upon the fecurity of national eftablishment, has too long laid our beft interefts open to the fecret and indefatigable defigns of our adverfaries.-That negative refiftance which wraps us up in the felfish folds of individual eafe and fafety, leaves thole adverfaries at full liberty to plan, to frame, and execute.-They are daily increafing in their ftrength, whilft we make little or no addition to our force; which it is to be feared by their fecret operations and open attacks even now confiderably fuffers.

We have seen a Porteus, a Landaff, a Daubeny, a Jones, advance with undaunted firmnefs to repel thofe attacks; we have teen their prowels, and fuccefs to their endeavours: ftill if the hands of our leaders (although a hoft in themselves) be not ftrengthened by the collected efforts of the rest of the Clergy, that fuccefs will only prove of partial and temporary confequence, or at best, perhaps, will terminate in a fhort-lived and inferior advantage.

Let me then be allowed to clofe this letter with one or two feafonable fuggeftions.-A Clergyman, be his fphere of action confined or extenfive, be his ftation in the church exalted or fubordinate, has many opportunities of rendering extraordinary fervice. to the general cause of the establishment; his education gives him ability, the religious and moral character of his profeflion gives him influence, and the general avocations of his parochial duties cenftantly prefent him with fubjects for his practical attention: be it then his efpecial care to check the progrefs of infidelity, by fortifying the minds of his flock with the firft principles of Chriftian truths; let him not fhrink from the toil of explanation; but whilft he rouzes the attention of the well-informed, let him infruft the ignorant, not only in the rudiments of the faith of their Redeemer, but in the purport of that fervice and public form of prayer in which the church teaches them to worship him.-Does the reftlefs fpirit of fedition feek to fow the tares of difcontent in the minds of his flock, let not the paftor forget that in forming the real Chriftian, he muft make him a good neighbour and a peaceful fubject; it would not, therefore, take him beyond the pale of his office were he to ftrive to defend the unwary and the doubtful man from the designs of the turbulent and crafty, and prevent him from being drawn into the agency of the latter, by expoling to the capa city of his understanding, the falfe and fpurious realonings which are made ule of to betray him, by defcribing to his conviction the reality of thofe advantages and comforts, of which his aflent to fuch reafonings muft eventually deprive him.

All this cannot be more readily effected than by fedulously expofing the circulation of those books which are the engines of infidelity and diffention, and by carefully diffeminating thole of contrary tendency.

"Fas eft ab hofte doceri ;" we have feen the fecrecy, the unremitting perleverance with which the enemies of our Church and NO. XI, VOL. III, State

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State have laboured to infinuate their principles, by the introduc tion of writings which enforce them; why then should we be less active than they; we, who have a nobler caufe to fupport-the caufe of Religion, Morality, and good Government ?The juftice of that cause rejects the defperable artifices of ftratagem, but if we carelessly neglect our guard, and fuffer our industry to grow remifs, the caule itfelf may fall, and we its advocates and friends may be involved in its ruin.

CLERICUS.

To the Editor.

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SPR,

66

THINK your correfpondent, under the fignature G. may be diffenters are at prefent active in their hoftility to our conftitution in church and state;" and this induces me to attract the notice of the public to the following statement, for the sruth of which I fhall confider myself aniwerable.

In a populous commercial town, at no great distance from Leeds, in Yorkshire, where the officiating clergy are certainly not remarkable for any great deficiency in attending to the duties of their ftation, a perfectly good understanding had fubfifted for a number of years between them, and the refident diffenting minifters. The baptift minifter, in particular, with great apparent candour, attended frequently at divine fervice in the church; and the clergy had contributed, I believe, handfomely towards the baptift million into foreign parts: though both parties, it is probable, expreffed with candour their difference of opinion, and that publicly, yet they appeared determined that the bond of peace fhould not be broken.

Now this was exactly as it fhould be; but a pernicious pamphlet which had the appearance of being circulated in rather a clandeftine manner, and that for a confiderable time, fell,, at length, into the hands of the clergy. Great, indeed, in all probability, muft have been their furprize, when they found that the circulator of this malignant book was that identical minifter to whom they had fincerc. ty given the right hand of fellowship, and with whom they walked in the houfe of God as friends. The book confifts of extracts from the diffenting gentleman's letters to Mr. White; and the fpirit with which it is written may be collected from the following fhort Specimen :-

"The chriftian religion is an address to the reason and understandings of mankind; eftablishments are an addrefs to their prejudices and paffions. The language of the chriftian religion is-prove all things, hold fast that which is good: but that of the civil magiftrate is, I have proved and examined for you, and unless you hold faft what I have determined to be right you fhall be deprived of many temporal advantages here; and, without doubt, perifli everlaftingly hereafter." To my apprehenfion it contains, moreover, a number of inflam matory fallehoods highly difgraceful to the feet which gave it births

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and when it was first put into my hands I really confidered it as violent Jacobin publication. It is fuppofed to have been the production of a neighbouring private prefs, which has already attained a character not very honourable to it's poffeffor.

'Now, Sir, as I cannot attribute this tranflation to a nafty narrow undermining hypocritical spirit in a man whom I really believe to be a chriftian, I attribute it, without hesitation, to a fectarian influence, which, in my opinion proves, in union with other collateral circumstances, that a democratic bias operates very ftrongly, and, perhaps, generally, at prefent, in the minds of the most refpectable of this defcription of dillenters; and one collateral circumftance I will with your permiffion, take the liberty to mention :

A gentleman of the fame place of well known loyalty had occafion for the fecond part of Paine's Rights of Man, he made his application to a stationer, one of the baptift's hearers, a reputed democrat, for the book. The bookfeller told him he had none.*

"Have you not really, Sir," faid the gentleman." No, Sir," replied the book feller." Come, Sir," faid the gentleman, “don't jeft with me, for I really want one." The book feller than flew into a rage, and faid, "Do you doubt my honour ?" "Not at all, Sir," replied the gentleman, and held the book up to his eyes. But, Sir, I will not avail myself of the advantage you have given me to injure you, if you will let me have one." The matter was now eafily compromifed; and the Gentleman is, I believe, at this day, in pof fellion of the Rights of Man.

One farther obfervation is I think a fair one, of the two parties which pretty generally divide our book clubs-the diffenters, if they join either, are, I believe, almoft univerfally feen with the democratic party; the writer is mafter of one inftance where this is the cafe; and he is convinced it is not a folitary one. It is, therefore; devoutly to be wished that, inftead of endeavouring to vindicate their body from charges which are only too true, the loyal amongit the diffenters would exert their influence to reftrain a spirit which they are, with propriety, afhamed of; and which, I believe, to be an inftructive relic of that injudicious, not to fay, unchristian, coalition, which took place no long time ago in oppofition to the teft aft. I believe, Sir, the character of your correfpondent is fuch that his word requires no verification by an oath; it is paft, and if his health permit he will fupport it. His hand writing is, as the Monthly Reviewer juftly obferves, too bad, when once known, to be concealed; and his name is, with the Editor of the Anti-Jacobin, to be produced upon any proper occafion.

The Diffenting gentleman's letters were written by a Mr. Towgood, poffibly one of the gentlemen whofe names are mentioned as being of the committee of the revolution fociety for the year 1792. Vide Rivington's Annual Register for that year, Appendix to the Chronicle, P. 135.

The gentleman immediately upon entering the fhop had covered one which had been left upon the counter with his hand. I beg

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