Thirdly, I could heartily wish his Lordship would not undertake to charge the opinions of one or two, and those probably nonjurors, upon the whole body of the nation that differs from him.  Mr. Lesley writ a “Proposal for a Union with the Gallican Church;” somebody else has “carried the necessity of priesthood in the point of baptism farther than popery;” a third has “asserted the independency of the church on the state, and in many things arraigned the supremacy of the crown.”  Then he speaks in a dubious insinuating way, as if some other popish tenets had been already advanced:  And at last concludes in this affected strain of despondency, “What will all these things end in? and on what design are they driven?  Alas, it is too visible!” ’Tis as clear as the sun, that these authors are encouraged by the ministry with a design to bring in Popery; and in Popery all these things will end.

I never was so uncharitable as to believe, that the whole party of which his Lordship professeth himself a member, had a real formed design of establishing atheism among us.  The reason why the Whigs have taken the atheists, or freethinkers, into their body, is because they wholly agree in their political schemes, and differ very little in church power and discipline.  However, I could turn the argument against his Lordship with very great advantage, by quoting passages from fifty pamphlets wholly made up of Whiggism and atheism, and then conclude; “What will all these things end in?  And on what design are they driven?  Alas, it is too visible!”

Lastly, I would beg his Lordship not to be so exceedingly outrageous upon the memory of the dead; because it is highly probable, that, in a very short time he will be one of the number.  He has in plain words given Mr. Wharton the character of a “most malicious, revengeful, treacherous, lying, mercenary villain.”  To which I shall only say, that the direct reverse of this amiable description is what appears from the works of that most learned divine, and from the accounts given me by those who knew him much better than the Bishop seems to have done.  I meddle not with the moral part of his treatment.  God Almighty forgive his Lordship this manner of revenging himself; and then there will be but little consequence from an accusation which the dead cannot feel, and which none of the living will believe.

***** ***** ***** *****

MR. COLLINS’S DISCOURSE OF

FREETHINKING;

PUT INTO PLAIN ENGLISH,

BY WAY OF ABSTRACT,

FOR THE USE OF THE POOR.

BY A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR.

FIRST PRINTED IN 1713

NOTE.