Town-Clerk here conforms himself to their Manner of speaking: But, take my Word for it, the Man knew better.

THE Image which fell down from Jupiter. As I was just now faying, all the Priests Lumber comes from God; and yet they are scared out of their Wits, left Man fhould take it from them; as if God could not defend his own Gifts and Institutions. This preposterous Conduct bewrays them. Either they believe not in God; or know that they belye him: Both Cafes, my Brethren, are very common. Whosoever feareth the Lord, need not fear what Man can do unto him.

MR. Town-Clerk proceeds: For ye have brought bither thefe Men, which are neither Robbers of Churches, nor yet Blafphemers of your Goddefs.

WELL urged, "If the Men are innocent, "why do ye abuse them? If they preach falfe. "Doctrine, why do ye not confute them? If "they come not to your Established Church, "why do ye not convince them, that they "ought to come? Or, because ye cannot an"fwer them, do ye therefore mob them? It «is plain, that the honeft Men have neither "ftolen any of your Madam's confecrated Trinkets, nor called her Whore."

WHEREFORE, if Demetrius, and the Craftsmen which are with him, have a Matter against any Man, the Law is open, and there are Deputies: Let them implead one another.

BETTER ftill! This is Reasoning now; a Practice which the Craftsmen do not care for; the Arm of Flesh is their beft Argument, and at that too they are generally laid in the Dirt. "Gentlemen, (fays the Town-Clerk) "it is evident, that ye diftruft your Caufe, by "not trufting the Merits of it to the Law. "All external Advantages are for you; ye are "in your own Town; ye have moft Friends, " and moft Money; and let me tell you too, "Gentlemen, ye have moft Affurance; elfe I "fhould never have found you here bawling

for your Church, and breaking the Law, and,

to your eternal Scandal, befetting with your "Numbers a few harmlefs Men, whofe only "Arms lie in the Innocence of their Lives, and "in the Force of what they fay. If you are

vanquished at thefe Weapons, have the Ho

nefty to own it, or for Shame be filent. If "thefe Men, Gentlemen, fpeak against the "Law, why punish ye them not by the Law? "But if ye have no Law against them, neither have they any Tranfgreffion,"

WHAT

WHAT Answer, trow ye, did the Craftfmen, or their Calves, the Multitude, make to this? Why, verily, such an Answer, I guess, as they are wont to make to us every Day: I suppose they damned him for a Whig, and fo got drunk, and went home.

Он, my Friends, the deplorable Condition of Men that are out of Chrift! And fuch are they who take their Religion from the Craftf men. The Worshippers of Diana would have been as outrageous for one of her Beagles, had the Craftsmen told them, that the Beagle came down from Jupiter. My Brethren, let us cleave to our Bibles; yea, I fay unto you, let us cleave to our Bibles.

III. I COME now to my third and last general Head, namely, to end my Difcourfe with fhort Word of Application; having, as I went along, anticipated myself, and made feveral Obfervations which would elfe have arisen pady here.

THE great Inference I fhall make is, that Craftsmen, or High-Church Men, are at Odds with Confcience and Truth, and afraid of them. And indeed, to do them Justice, tho', in relation to God and Religion, there is no believing what they fay; yet, whenever they reafon from their own Interests, they reafon M 6 well:

Well: By this Craft we have our Wealth. As to their Flourish about Diana, and her HighChurch, it has not, in point of Argument, common Senfe in it. All they affert is, that all Afia worshipped her; as if, because Diana was then uppermoft, therefore Jesus Christ ought to have been kept undermoft. They could not ftand Paul's Logic; he appealed to Facts, he appealed to Reason, he appealed to Confcience.

THEY therefore (that is, Diana's HighPriefts, or the Overfeers of her Fopperies, and Fingerers of her Gain) form a Defign to opprefs a Man whom they could not anfwer. There was no bearing it, that Men fhould be conducted in their Religion by inward Conviction, and the Grace of God, and not by them, who had no Advantage from either, for the Support of their Impofitions.

BESIDE, if all external Trumpery and Grimace in Religion were certainly ridiculous and vain, as the Chriftian Religion certainly teaches; if Poftures, Cringes, Shrines, Muhc, and the like bodily Devotion, were so far from fignifying any thing, that they were a certain and pernicious Contradiction to the fimple Inftitution of Jefus, whofe Will was fulfilled by believing in him, and living well;

then

then were the Craftsmen like to be but little Teverenced, and to have but little Cuftom for their Shrines, and their fmall Wares. A Priest dreffed up in an antic Coat, and making Mouths before a dead Image, would make a merry Figure before the People, instead of an aweful one, as formerly; and in the midst of all their holy Hubbub and Solemnity, a Chriftian need but ask them one fhort Question, Who required these things at your Hand? and they were confounded.

WHAT do they do therefore in this Cafe? Do they defend the Church-gear by Reason, or by Reason confute Paul? No: Paul alferted, that they be no Gods which are made with Hands; the moft felf-evident Truth that ever was afferted by any Man. They cannot anfwer it; nor yet will they own themselves in the Wrong; but they will punish the Apostle for being in the Right. Well, in order to do this, do they go to Law with him? Not that neither: Paul and his Companions had offended no Law; They were peaceable Men, they were loyal Subjects, and good Livers: They were Contenders for Virtue and Piety; and they had not uttered a Syllable against Diana's Idol, but what refulted from the eternal Truths which they delivered.

WHAT