[Footnote 59:  “The Case stated between the Church of Rome and the Church of England,” 1713.]

His Lordship ends with discovering a small ray of comfort.  “God be thanked there are many among us that stand upon the watch-tower, and that give faithful warning; that stand in the breach, and make themselves a wall for their church and country; that cry to God day and night, and lie in the dust mourning before him, to avert those judgments that seem to hasten towards us.  They search into the mystery of iniquity that is working among us, and acquaint themselves with that mass of corruption that is in popery."[60] He prays “that the number of these may increase, and that he may be of that number, ready either to die in peace, or to seal that doctrine he has been preaching above fifty years, with his blood."[61] This being his last paragraph, I have made bold to transcribe the most important parts of it.  His design is to end after the manner of orators, with leaving the strongest impression possible upon the minds of his hearers.  A great breach is made; “the mystery of popish iniquity is working among us;” may God avert those “judgments that are hastening towards us!” I am an old man, “a preacher above fifty years,” and I now expect and am ready to die a martyr for the doctrines I have preached.  What an amiable idea does he here leave upon our minds, of Her Majesty and her government!  He has been poring so long upon Fox’s Book of Martyrs, that he imagines himself living in the reign of Queen Mary, and is resolved to set up for a knight-errant against Popery.  Upon the supposition of his being in earnest, (which I am sure he is not) it would require but a very little more heat of imagination, to make a history of such a knight’s adventures.  What would he say, to behold the “fires kindled in Smithfield, and all over the town,” on the 17th of November; to behold the Pope borne in triumph on the shoulders of the people, with a cardinal on the one side, and the Pretender on the other?  He would never believe it was Queen Elizabeth’s day, but that of her persecuting sister:  In short, how easily might a windmill be taken for the whore of Babylon, and a puppet-show for a popish procession?

[Footnote 60:  Page 71]

[Footnote 61:  Page 72]

But enthusiasm is none of his Lordship’s faculty:  I am inclined to believe he might be melancholy enough when he writ this Introduction:  The despair at his age of seeing a faction restored, to which he hath sacrificed so great a part of his life:  The little success he can hope for in case he should resume those High-Church Principles, in defence of which he first employed his pen:  No visible expectation of removing to Farnham or Lambeth:  And lastly, the misfortune of being hated by every one, who either wears the habit, or values the profession of a clergyman:  No wonder such a spirit, in such a situation, is provoked beyond the regards of truth, decency, religion, or