As sure as his regimen works, From old orthodox leaven 'twill purge ye; Strike the flint of his heart on the steel Of freedom; lawn sleeves be the tinder : Saviour in their churches.-It was brought into fashion by the See Preface to that excellent story, "The Monkies in Red Caps." Addressed to the Jacobins.—Debrett, 1792. * I am told that the sons of Jew-jobbers have been made bishops; persons not to be suspected of any Christian supertition. Burke. + Consumed formerly in the fire of London. How ought we then to be affected, who firmly believe, that in so short a space of time, (i.-e. about fourteen or twenty years, agreeably to a previous accurate calculation,) we may see our deceased friend again, and be able to tell him, what he will be as eager to learn, how those things, about which he most interested himself, went on after his death; and such is the prospect now opening before us, respecting the enlargement of civil and religious liberty, that the longest liver will have the best news to carry him. Priestley's Sermon on the Death of Dr. Price. So let PERIGORD* post with advice, Then serve up a dish piping hot Of the calves heads that govern the nation; By murder effect reformation: Lords and Commons exalt to the skies, Taught by PRIESTLEY new flights of devotion, And each member at once make a motion. His Birmingham thunder shall 'wake Those blind watchmen ‡ your bishops suffragan, * M. Talleyrand-Perigord, ancien Evêque d'Autun, who testified his extraordinary affection for the Sacred order, by recommending the confiscation of the French clergy; and who (after the refusal of all the ancient prelates, not excepting the arch-apostate of Sens) readily afforded his ministry in consecrating the new constitutional bishops. The Convention, which he has lately deserted, having no farther occasion for his services above ground, he cannot be better disposed of than in an embassy ad inferos. + The most august assembly in the world, by which I wish to be understood the National Assembly of France, have justly styled him (Dr. Price) the Apostle of Freedom. Priestley's Sermon on the Death of Dr. Price, p. 8. His watchmen are blind :-they are all ignorant,-sleeping, And the pillars of monarchy shake; To pull down that pile Antichristian, Which shall tumble, and beat out the brains For instruction repair to PAINE's school, Call'd "The Church as establish'd by Law;"† That with fishes and loaves loads his crupper, lying down, loving to slumber. Isaiah, lxvi. 10.—A prophetic passage which charitable dissenters aver to be typical of the orthodox tranquillity of our right reverend bench. * Sampson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood-and he bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the Lords, &c. Judges, xvi. 29, 30. + By engendering the church with the state, a sort of Mule animal, capable only of destroying, and not breeding up, is produced, called, The Church established by Law. It is a stranger, even from its birth, to any parent mother on which it is begotten, and whom in time it kicks out and destroys. Paine's Rights of Man, p. 81. While Sectaries squint at the bait, * And get nothing but kicks for their supper.* Nor believe the assertion that those Some lambs of this very same fold, Some say that with coin to supply us, * Peace is the cure of fanaticism, as fanaticism is the bane of peace. Sectaries must either kick or be kicked. They must either persecute, or they must provoke persecution. To be in this turbulent state is living in their proper element. + Psalm cxxxv. ver. 15. Warburton on Grace, p. 136. Whackum had neither cross nor pile, His plunder was not worth the while. Hudibras. Your assembly tells the people that they have brought the Church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declara But 'tis false.-* The true church we restore By our confiscatorial process; And her sons, like the Christians of yore, We make them all take up their crosses. What! shall prelates or nobles forsooth In fine cloaths shew their insolent riches, tion is undoubtedly true; for they have brought it to a state of Poverty and Persecution. Letter from Mr. Burke to Nat. Assem. 1791, p. 17. *To obviate the inconvenience resulting from the tedious forms of the old government, the regenerated rulers of France, superior to all the narrow prejudices of humanity, have adopted a summary process, which at once evinces their paternal tenderness towards the subjects of their government, and, by a judicious disposal of their persons, effectually prevents all remonstrance against the equity of Democratical Legislation. Take the following instance from Fennel, p. 457. "On the 19th of August, the Assembly, being informed that the Administrators of the Department Du Var, sitting at Toulon, (unauthorized by any existing law) had transported their refractory priests, very warmly applauded the conduct of that department; and, upon a proposition of M. Cambon, instantly decreed, that all ecclesiastics, who have never taken the oath, or who, having taken it, have afterwards retracted, shall be transported." The operation of the French Edicts resembles the operation of an infallible nostrum, whose learned vender assured his patients; "After swallowing one box of my incomparable pills, nobody never needs take no more of nothing." |