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A due execution of this scheme, will foon produce many converts from Popery: nevertheless, to the end it may be known, when they fhall be. of the true church, I have ordered a large parcel of ecclefiaftical, or church thermometers, to be made, one of which is to be hung up in each parish-church; the description and use of which, take as follows, in the words of the ingenious Ifaac Bickerstaff, Efq;

T1

HE church-thermometer, which I am now. to treat of, is fupposed to have been invented in the reign of Henry VIII. about the time when that religious prince put fome to death, for owning the Pope's fupremacy, and others for denying transubstantiation. I do not find, however, any great use made of this inftrument, till it fell into the hand of a learned and vigilant prieft, or minifter, (for he frequently wrote himself both the one and the other,) who was some time vicar of Bray. This gentleman lived in his vicarage to a good old age; and, after having feen feveral fucceffions of his neighbouring clergy, either burnt or banished, departed this life, with the fatisfaction of having never deferted his flock, and died vicar of Bray. As this glafs was first designed to calculate the different degrees of heat in religion, as it raged in Popery, or as it cooled and grew temperate in the reformation, it was marked at several distances, after the manner our ordinary thermometer is to this day, viz. Extreme S 3

hot,

bot, Sultry hot, Very hot, Hot, Warm, Temperate, Cold, Juft freezing, Froft, Hard froft, Great froft, Extreme cold.

It is well known, that Torricellius, the inventor of the common weather-glafs, made the experiment of a long tube, which held thirty-two foot of water; and that a more modern virtuofo, finding fuch a machine altogether unwieldy, and usclefs, and confidering, that thirty-two inches of quickfilver weighed as much as fo many foot of water, in a tube of the fame circumference, invented that fizeable inftrument which is now in ufe. After this manner, that I might adapt the thermometer I am now fpeaking of, to the prefent conflitution of our church, as divided into High and Lou, I have made fome neceffary varia tions, both in the tube, and the fluid it contains. In the first place, I ordered a tube to be caft, in a planetary hour, and took care to feal it hermetically, when the fun was in conjunction with Saturn. I then took the proper precautions about the fluid, which is a compound of two different liquors; one of them a fpirit, drawn out of a Arong heady wine; the other, a particular fort of rock-water, colder than ice, and clearer than chryftal. The fpit is of a red, fiery colour; and fo very apt to ferment, that, unlefs it be mingled with a proportion of the water, or pent up very clofe, it will burft the veffel that holds it, and fly up in fume and fmoke. The water, on the contrary, is of such a subtile, piercing cold,

that,

that, unless it be mingled with a proportion of the fpirits, it will fink almost through every thing it is put into; and feems to be of the same nature as the water mentioned by Quintus Curtius, which, fays the hiftorian, could be contained in nothing but in the hoof, or (as the Oxford manufcript has it) the fcull of an afs. The thermometer is marked, according to the following figure, which I fet down at length, not only to give my reader a clear idea of it, but also to fill up my paper.

Ignorance.
Perfecution.
Wrath.

Zeal.

CHURCH.

Moderation.

Lukewarmness.

Infidelity.
Ignorance.

The reader will obferve, that the church is plaeed in the middle point of the glass, between Zeal and Moderation, the fituation in which the always flourishes, and in which, every good Englifhman wishes her, who is a friend to the conftitution of his country. However, when it mounts to Zeal, it is not amifs; and, when it finks to Moderation,, it is fill in admirable temper. The worst of it is, that, when once it begins to rife, it has ftill an inclination to afcend, infomuch,

that

that it is apt to climb from Zeal to Wrath, and from Wrath to Perfecution, which often ends in Ignorance, and very often proceeds from it. In the fame manner, it frequently takes its progress through the lower half of the glafs; and, when it has a tendency to fall, will gradually defcend from Moderation to Lukewarmness, and from Lukewarmness to Infidelity, which very often terminates in Ignorance, and always proceeds from it.

It is a common obfervation, that the ordinary thermometer will be affected by the breathing of people who are in the room where it ftands; and, indeed, it is almoft incredible to conceive, how the glass I am now defcribing, will fall, by the breath of the multitude, crying Popery; or, on the contrary, how it will rife, when the fame multitude (as it fometimes happens) cry out, in the fame breath, The church is in danger.

As foon as I had finished this my glass, and adjusted it to the above-mentioned scale of religion, that I might make proper experiments with it, I carried it, under my cloak, to several coffeehouses, and other places of resort, about this great city. At St. James's coffee-house, the liquor ftood at Moderation; but, at Will's, to my extreme surprise, it subsided to the very lowest mark of the glafs. At the Grecian, it mounted but just one point higher; at the Rainbow, it still afcended two degrees: Child's fetched it up to Zeal, and other adjacent coffee-houses to Wrath.

It fell, in the lower half of the glass, as I went further into the city, till, at length, it settled at Moderation;

Moderation; where it continued, all the time I ftaid about the 'Change, as alfo whilft I paffed by the Bank. And here I cannot but take notice, that, through the whole course of my remarks, I never observed my glass to rise, at the same time that the ftocks did.

To complete the experiment, I prevailed upon a friend of mine, who works under me in the occult sciences, to make a progrefs, with my glass, through the whole ifland of Great-Britain; and, after his return, to prefent me with a register of his obfervations. I gueffed, before-hand, at the temper of feveral places he paffed through, by the characters they have had, time out of mind. Thus, that facetious divine, Dr. Fuller, fpeaking of the town of Banbury, near a hundred years ago, tells us, it was a place famous for cakes and zeal; which I find, by my glass, is true, to this day, as to the latter part of his description; though, I must confefs, it is not in the fame reputation for cakes, that it was in the time of that learned author; and thus of other places. In fhort, I have now by me, digefted in an alphabetical order, all the counties, corporations, and boroughs, in Great-Britain, with their respective tempers, as they stand related in my thermometer. But this 1 fhall keep to myself; because, I would, by no means, do any thing that may feem to influence any enfuing election.

The point of doctrine which I would propagate, by this my invention, is the fame which was, long ago, advanced by that able teacher Horace, out

of

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