MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



401 



Rapin says, " the moderate tones 

 are the true Enghshmen — have fre- 

 quently saved the state, and will save 

 it again (prophetic rnay his words 

 prove ! ) whenever it shall be in 

 danger either of despotism from the 

 efforts of the very violent tories, 

 OK of repubUcanism from the very 

 violent whigs ; for," continues he, 

 " the moderate state-whigs wish 

 little more than to maintain with 

 unremitted attention the ptivileges 

 of parliament, and only lean in 

 every dispute to the popular side ; 

 while the tories watch with equal 

 care over the royal prerogative, re- 

 gardful of its rights, and jealous of 

 its infringements. Episcopalians 

 and puritans in like manner softened 

 down their distinctions, and were 

 best known in the succeeding reigns 

 by name of high and low church- 

 men ; the first being most strenuous 

 to support the hierarchy ; the second, 

 vigilant to prevent any stretch of 

 ecclesiastical power." Till these 

 unhappy times, however, anarchists, 

 professedly so called were never 

 heard of in any church or state. 

 Lord Bolingbroke, who will not be 

 suspected easily, I imagine, of a hypo- 

 critical regard for our holy religion, 

 says in this manner : " Some men 

 there are, the pests of society I think 

 them, who take every opportunity 

 of declaiming against that church 

 establishment which is received in 

 Britain ; and just so the other men, 

 of whom I have been speaking, 

 affect a kindness for liberty in gene- 

 ral, but dislike so much the system 

 of liberty established here, that they 

 are incessant in their endeavours to 

 puzzle the plainest thing in the 

 world, and to refine and distinguish 

 away the life and strength of our 

 constitution in favour oif the little 

 present momentary turns which thev 

 Vot. XXXVI. 



are retained to serve. And what 

 would be the consequence, I would 

 know, if their endeavours should 

 succeed? lam persuaded," continues 

 he, " that the great politicians, 

 divines, philosophers, and lawyers, 

 who exert them, have not yet pre- 

 pared and agreed upon the plans of 

 a new religion, and of a new consti- 

 tution in church and state. We 

 should find ourselves therefore with- 

 out any form of religion, or any 

 civil government. The first set of 

 these missioners would hasten to re- 

 move all restraints of religion from 

 the governed, and the latter set 

 would remove or render ineffectual 

 all the limitations and controls 

 which liberty has prescribed to 

 those that govern, and thus disjoint 

 the whole frame of our constitution. 

 Intire dissolution of manners, con- 

 fusion, anarchy, or, at best, absolute 

 monarchy, must follow ; for it is pro- 

 bable that in a state like this, amidst 

 such a rout of lawless savages, men 

 would chuse that government, rat Jier 

 than no government at all." Thus 

 far the elegant and spirited disserta- 

 tion upon Parlies bears testimony to 

 a necessity for religious and civil 

 subordination, in these days openly 

 denied and combated, to the terror 

 of every sect, to the astonishment of 

 every party. Against the present 

 Faction, then, let all modifications 

 of Christianity andciyilization hasten 

 to unite; when even this last quoted 

 infidel would, were he now alive, 

 lend his assistance to crush these pro- 

 fessors of atheism and violence, these 

 traitors to human kind, who under a 

 shew of regard rob them of their 

 dearest right, and render the royal, 

 the parental, the martial, authority 

 — for each is connected with the 

 other — a jest for fools, a shadow of 

 a sliade. 



D d Rural 



