SO LIBERTY OF REASONING 



of the xviiith were politely ftyled by no worfe a name 

 than, The dreams of a doting cofmopolite. 



To this, from my heart, I fay Amen ! And, now, 

 after this fhort cofmopolitical digrefiion, I intend to 

 apply what remains -of my prefent confederations, to 

 that part of my brethren, who, for their deliverance 

 from the yoke that opp relied our fathers, are princi- 

 pally indebted to their bold exertions of the preroga- 

 tives of reafon, and would be utterly inexcufable were 

 they again to lofe chofe invaluable benefits irom their 

 not tiling them, benefits which they thought not too 

 dearly purchafed for their pofterky even at the expence 

 of their lives. 



I am as much convinced of the great poUibilky that 

 the public can difpenfe with my fentiments on thefe 

 objecls, as the feverefc of my unfavourable readers (for 

 I cannot expecT to have merely favourable ones) can. 

 be. It is hardly portable for any one to know better 

 than I do, how little new is to be faid on thefe matters, 

 cfpecially in the prefent times, when, for feveral years, 

 fo many able writers have been writing fo much upon 

 them. In the mean time, it is no lefs true, that intel- 

 ligent readers 'expedt nothing new on fubjects of this 

 kind, but — from the inward feeling that they relate 

 to the moil important concerns of mankind, and there- 

 fore can never be too much taken to heart, never too 

 frequently ihewn on all their different fides, and placed 

 in every poilible point of view — are fatisfied if they 

 either meet with fo me thing in the mode of reprefenta- 

 tion or in the delivery of it, that but feems to give a 

 •colour of novelty to thefe matters, on which men have 

 ever been, and ever will be writing, becaufe they ever 



' have 



