CANDID INQUIRY INTO THE DEMOCRATIC SCHEMES OF THE DISSENTERS, DURING THESE TROUBLESOME TIMES. Tending to shew, that under the Cloak of Religion, BRADFORD: PRINTED AND SOLD BY R. SEDGWICK; AND THE BOOKSELLERS IN LEEDS, WAKEFIELD, 1801 PRICE ONE SHILLING. 110. j. 220: A CANDID INQUIRY, &c. N order to ascertain the real state of a nation, with IN respect to its internal safety, one of our first inquiries will be into the state of the press; and the next into the state of religion. In a former publication I have exposed the connexion of the conspirators against social order with the press: In the present it is my design to examine as closely what use they are, at this moment, making of religion, for it seems they are aware of an egregious blunder they were guilty of at the outset of their scheme and are endeavouring to retrieve their affairs by a change of men and measures. Common sense might teach almost every man, who has lived under a pure dispensation of Christianity, that there can be no government so stable as that which is supported by religion. Priestley so far acknowledged this obvious truth, as to improve upon the French system, by admitting Socinianism into his plan; but in Socianism there is nothing solid for the mind to reșt upon it is an apology to enable us to indulge our passions with ease, and satisfy our consciences, upon B which no one but a fool (I use the term in the Scripture sense) can possibly rely.* There is nothing in Socianism sufficiently specious to deceive any great number of men possessing the sterling sense of enlightened Englishmen. There were therefore, at that time, men of deeper thought who foretold the speedy failure of his enterprize, and who, from the very first, have been playing a slower but much surer game. They know that religion may not only be made a mask for the most atrocious villany, but that it may be made a bond of union, a stay to timidity, and a spur to vigilance. The first thing necessary to bring this, formidable engine into play, on the side of the conspiracy, was to raise a general odium against the Clergy and the established forms of worship. The methods taken to do this against the Clergy, were to insinuate the idea, that every man who preaches with notes is an unconverted man, and of consequence preaches not by the direction of the spirit of God: and that if á Minister is not called by the spirit of God to preach, he is a robber of God's heritage, and a murderer of souls a pest to society, whom no man of conscience ought to attend in his ministerial capacity, or * Poor I-bb-was, after all his philofophic parade, a lamentable instance of the infufficiency of Socinian principles to fupport a fensible man at the hour of death: Inftead of looking to his God with the firmness of a Chriftian, he threw himself down upon the fofa, and in the most melancholy manner ex laimed, all is over." even to shew him common civility as a member of the social compact. Hence it has been very much the fashion lately amongst the Dissenters, not even to move their hats to a Clergyman of the Estab lishment.* "Let us look," says one of the most respectable * When the fever of Democracy ran very high amongst the Diffenters, a Clergyman of the Writer's intimate acquaintance, was told by one of them, with great impertinence, that he must foon beftripped of his Bishop's gown." This interview took place in the public ftreet, as the Clergyman was going peaceably to adminifter in his facred function. § Pawfon's Sermons, page 324. Surely more abandoned false hoods were never told by a man pretending to be inspired, than are to be met with in this gentlemen's facred pages. But where is the confiftency among the Methodists? The venerable Mr. Pawson wishes to overturn the Church, and charitably sends the Clergy, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, to the Devil. But the no lefs venerable Mr. Wesley fays, speaking of the Church of England, O pray for the peace of Jerufalem, they fall profper that love thee. Hampfon's Life of Welley. And Mr. Alexander confiders Methodism defenfible only as an auxiliary to the Church. The Writer has obferved a great deal of this inconfiftency, with their principles, amongst certain defcriptions of people, which leads him to fufpect that they have either no fettled principles or no confistency. The Democrats were unanimoufly the Friends of the People; but as foon as a GOLDEN IMAGE was fet up in the plains of Dura, in the province of Babylon, who fo forward to press into the new machinery, and grind the faces of the poor? Have no lives been loft to the community upon this melancholy occafion? The most dreadful facrifice mentioned in hiftory is that, when men offered their fons and daughters unto Devils; and perhaps the next to it, is that, where the comfort of fo many of our fellow creatures is facrificed to Mammon. This note has clearly a loca allufion. EDITOR. |