1808. ] 
“manity would even bring them fre- 
quently together on particular occasions 
to pay their devotions in the same 
temple. The lawn-robed prelate treat- 
ed as his children, all those who, 
though they disowned his spiritual autho- 
rity, obeyed his divine master; while the 
Presbyterian, the Independent, the Ca- 
tholic, and the Quaker. partook of his hos- 
pitality, and repaid his benevolence with 
gratitude and respect. This state of so- 
ciety, worthy of real Christians, was bro- 
ken up by those who wore that charac« 
teronly asa mask. A set of men, imter- 
ested in promoting dissensions by which 
villainy and rapacity might profit,-and in 
decrying those genuine fruits of religion, 
that salutary faith and those pure morals 
which by comparison shamed their own 
characters, after long in vain attempting 
to exalt blind belief in general, and then 
particular dogmas, in preference to an 
useful and virtuous life, but too success- 
fully obtained their ends when it was 
least expected. Qn all the great truths of 
revealed religion, honest men could ne- 
ver long be at variance. On disputable 
points they had learned a salutary for- 
bearance, which enabled them to think 
for themselves and to let others do the 
same. ‘The only resource of those who 
in any age or country wish to stir up reli- 
gious animosity, 1s to bring forward some- 
thing that no one can determine, and 
that is of no importance whether it be 
determined or not. The less mankind 
understand a subject, the more warmly 
do they debate upon it; and the more it 
is beneath the dignity of human wisdom, 
the more worthy they esteem it of divine 
interference. Such a point did these fa- 
matics unhappily discover. In the 19th 
chapter of St. John’s Gospel, verse 23, 
for well I know the too celebrated text, it 
is said that “ the coat of Christ was 
without seam, woven from the top 
throughout.” This apparently unimport- 
ant and harmless piece of sacred history 
became the subject of many sermons, 
Various mystical allusions were combined 
with it, and many discordant opinions 
started. Those who brought it into no- 
tice contended that the garment in ques- 
tion was literally woven in a loom, so as 
Oo be of one piece, without a seam. 
Dthers, who considered it as an innocent 
trifling speculation, suggested that 
of such powers had never been 
the coat might probably have 
d, in which case it might in- 
been made without a seam; 
Funaticism : a Vision. 
I3l 
and this reasonable opinion was adopted 
Ly the most able and enlightened peopie 
who bestowed any attention at all upon 
this foolish, and at first unimportant con- 
troversy. But the leaders of the dispute 
treated such an explanation as heretical ; 
and, being the most rational and proba= 
ble, it has more than any other opinion 
been proscribed and condemned. Those 
who dared to support it were at one time 
burnt without mercy, and you yourself 
were highly favoured by fortune this day, 
when you mentioned knitted stockings 
and yet cocaped with life. 
collect two neighbouring places of wor- 
ship in the lower part of the town, one 
of an octagon, the otber of asquare form, 
the occupiers of which differed from each 
other and from the established church, in 
some points now absolutely forgotten, 
and which never interfered much with 
their essential Christian character and 
duties. The latter congregation most fa- 
voured the knitting system, the former 
discouraged the enquiry as altogether un- 
profitable, Both were very soon overe 
whelmed by the torrent of persecution, 
The one edifice beeamea prison for here- 
tics, who were burnt, as in a great fur= 
nace, in the dome of the other. Every 
idea of a seam in any garment was pro- 
scribed. The spire of the cathedral, as 
having a reference to an obelisk, and con- 
sequently to a needle, was destroyed, 
and the present uncouth though expen- 
sive architectural deformity substituted in 
its stead. The little cupola which crowns 
the stump of the spire ct yon other church, 
You may re- . 
is thought to have served as’a private re-_ 
treat insome tea-garden, till all such lux- 
uries and refinement becoming superflu- 
ousin the abject state of society, it was 
bought by the parish when their spire 
was demolished. 
“ But as it was found absolutely ims 
possible to form garments without seams, 
those who make them are secretly con- 
nived at, on condition of their paymg an 
exorbitant tax to the church, in which the 
seamless faction has long obtained the as- 
cendancy; and contrivances are used, as 
you observed, for concealing the seams, 
which, indeed, it is heresy to find out. 
This tax renders cloaths ef all kinds so 
dear that few can buy them at the first 
hand, and as shoes could not be made 
without evident seams, they were soon 
forbidden. The poverty of the people 
has indeed rendered thein superfluona. 
4 
You are fortunate that your own are,as 1 - 
perceive, in tog ruinous a state to be re- 
cognized 
