*22d pope of Rome;" and in p. 299, "Who that devoutly, with a contrite heart, daily fay this orifon, if he be that day in a ftate of eternal damnation, then his eternal pain fhall be changed him in temporal pain of purgatory; then, if he hath deferved the pain of purgatory, it fhall be forgotten and forgiven through the infinite mercy of God;" and, in p. 433, the command of Leo X. to his fpiritual fubjects, to acknowledge his power of delivering from all 1 punishments due to fin and tranfgreffions of every kind. Now, Sir, let me afk any one of your readers of common fenfe and unfophiticated mind, whether he thinks I am not juftified in faying, that to teach people they can obtain forgiveness of their fins, and everlafting happiness, by obfervances like thefe, is holding out to then encouragement to forfake real righteousness, and, by inftructing them to truft in that which cannot deliver, mifleading them to their deftruction? Or when, from a book of indulgences, publifhed fo lately as the year 1788, I had quoted this paffage, "Whoever on his death-bed, after recommending his foul to God, after confeffion and communion, if not prevented by fome impediment, being heartily forry for his fins, fhall pronounce the name of Jefus, as he is able, fhall gain a plenary indulgence of all his fins. Benedict XIV." might I not truly fay, that "the indul gence here proclaimed must be received as the unlettered Chriftian will underftand it; and he doubtleffly will interpret it as much as poffible in favour of his pallions and his hopes; and thus by the ignorant, that is, and always will be, the majority of the adherents of the papacy, a death-bed repentance even of this flight kind will be fuppofed to obliterate every fin?" On the fubject of difpenfations, perhaps, I went farther, and called them licences to commit fin, but of thefe the Lover of Truth has taken no notice. Yet have fuch never been iffued from Rome? Or does not her church hold inceft to be a crime? If it does not, what need of difpenfations for the commiffion of it? But if it does, is not the granting of them giving a licence to commit fin? If my memory fail not, in our own days an uncle married his niece in one of the courts of Europe under fuch a difpenfation. And, furely, in this cafe the Lover of Truth will own, that fome learned and well-informed

members of what he calls, with equal truth, this venerable and calumniated church, muft have been confulted. And what, Sir, is abfolving fubjects from their oaths, but permitting them to commit perjury? I think that the Lover of Truth will fearcely, by denying that this has been done, force me to produce again the proofs of it stated in the Commentary. To the plea of the worship which the papifts pay to angels and faints being to be refolved into an Ora pro nobis, I have oppofed the words of the prayers which they offer, as well as the ftatement of this truth, that, by maintaining the faints hear the prayers offered to them from the different parts of the world, omniprefence or omuifcience, both divine attributes, is afcribed to them, and confequently, fpite of all the fophiftry that cau be employed on the point, divine worship is really paid to them. That the prayers I cited do in fact afk for bleffings from them without any refe rence to an higher power, a quotation or two will fhew; and prove, what is ftill more shocking, that in fome cafes our Lord is mentioned as mediator between them and their fupplicants, not they as mediators between him and his fervants on earth. "Holy Mother of God, who haft worthily merited to conceive Him, whom, &c. by your pious intervention wafh away our fins, that being redeemed by thee, we may be able to afcend," &c. Comm. p. 321.I pray thee, Queen of Heaven, haye me excufed with Chrift thy fon, whofe anger I dread, and thoroughly fear his wrath, for against thee only have I finned. Be the guardian of my heart, imprefs me with the fear of God, beflow on me integrity of life, and give me honesty of manners and grant that I may avoid fin, and love what is righteous, O Virgin Sweetnefs," &c. Ibid. "Regina que es mater et calia, falve noftra per filium peccamina. Angelorum concio facra et arch-angelorum turba inclyta, noftra diluant jam peccata præftando fupernam coli gloriam.” P, 324. "Tu per Thomæ fanguinem, quem pro te impendit, fac nos, Chrifte, feandere, quo Thomas afcendit.-Ut ejus meritis et precibus a Gehennæ incendiis liberemur." Ibid. And, p. 326,

Protect, O Lord, thy people, and preferve them with perpetual defence who confide in the patronage of thine apoftles Peter and Paul, and the other apofiles."

Another

that

berer, by ftating the very triumphant manner in which the line of prophecies relating to the Church, contained in the Book of the Revelation, has hitherto been accomplished, and the vifible tendency of prefent circumftances to produce farther completions. In doing this, I was led to demonftrate that the apoftacy had taken place in the papal power and its fubjects. If any learned and well-informed members of church find themfelves hurt at the difclofure of thofe tenets, which they, as her obedient fons, are called on under an anathema to receive; if they are afhamed of practices which are fanctioned by her councils, her popes, and her faints, inftead of attempting to ward off the cenfure due to the falle. teachers that miflead the multitude, by faving only, that they are not fo deplorably flupid as to believe these things, how much wifer would it be, how much more love of truth, how much greater reverence for the all-perfect fource of it, would it manifeft, were they to accept the call which, with the fincereft withes for their falvation, I have given them, to examine for themfelves the pure Word of God; and, thus detecting the impious (alfhood of the papal pretenfions to the vicegerency of Chrift, no longer continue in that lamentable ftate of ignorance of which the Lover of Truth betrays fo firong a fymptom, when, at the clofe of his letter, he fpeaks of the gift of the key to St. Peter, as a ceremony which really took place in an actual delivery of them to the apoftle.

Another point on which this Lover of Truth charges me with caluminy, is accufing the papifts with the crime of worshiping gods of filver and gold. Now, for this I produced the words of the Council of Trent, meeting the fubterfuge which in their decree iffued to evade the charge of idolatry, when, as the honour due to thefe images, they mention kiffing them, and uncovering the head, and proftration before them, with the obfervation, that, "fince the crime itfelf confifts not merely in what men may chufe to define it, but in what is actually forbidden as fuch in Holy Writ. If we are therein cominanded not to bow down to an image, which we expreffly are, the proftration of ourfelves fanctioned by this is idolatry, forbidden by the Scriptures." If a picture be drawn to reprefent the Deity, it is a moft prefumptuous impiety, expreffly and repeatedly prohibited. If they be images of others, while they acknowledge that the worfhip would be idolatrous were it paid to the images themfelves, and therefore refer it to their prototypes, they confels that they really worthip them whofe images they are, and thus plead guilty to the former charge of worthiping departed fpirits. To this dilemma the Lover of Truth has no thought fit to reply; nor yet to what I mentioned of the indication given, that it is in the image that the confidence of the votary is placed, by the preference fhewn to particular images; for inftance, that of our Lady of Loretto before that of our Lady of fomewhere elfe. Indeed this anonymous writer has confined himfelf to generals in a way that gives me the fatisfaction of thinking he found the particulars of my work impreg nable; for, could he have difcovered in it any falfe interpretations of Scripture, or any unfair quotations from the various authors cited in it, it is not to be imagined but one fo well inclined would have fully expofed them. Nav, my firft object being the elucidation of the truth, I fhould think myself obliged to any one who would point out any real error or overfight into which I may have fallen. Impreffed with the beft-founded conviction of the very near approach of the kingdom of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and fenfible of the increafing prevalence of infidelity, I determined to exert what feeble efforts I could make to convince the gain fayer, alarm the finner, and roule the flum

Much more, Sir, might have been pro duced from the Commentary in proof of my having therein refuted what the Lover of Truth has holden forth as unanfwered; but, confcious how much I am trefpaffing on you, I have reftrained my reply within the narroweft limits I could, without letting that pafs unnoticed, which, if not answered, might have been vaunted as a refutation of all I had written, acknowledged to be complete by my filence and to permit this, after the opinion I have in the work itfelf expreffed of the progress making in this country by the partizans of the papacy; might feem a defertion of my poft. Perinit me only to add, that neither of the pages of my work quoted by the Lover of Truth contains the paffage for which he refers to it; and for the note in the last quotation of p. 245, though I have not

:

only

HE ingenious Mr. SHENSTONE

Twas a Projector of fonde eminence in his day, and one of his beft Projects was that which had drefs for its object, and which, falling in my way a few days ago, fuggefted the prefent paper. The refult of his lucubrations he conveys in the following words;

"If drefs were only authorized in men of ingenuity, we thould find many aiming at the previous menit in hopes of the fubfe quent dutinction. The finery of an empty fellow would render him as ridiculous as a

star and garter would one never knighted and men would ufe as commendable a diligence to qualify the mfelves for a brocaded waistcoat, or a gold fuff-box, as they now do to procure themfelves a right of invefting their limbs in lawn or ermine. We fhould not esteem a man a coxcomb for his drefs, till, by frequent conversation, we difcovered a flaw in his title. If he was incapable of uttering a bon mot, the gold upon his coat would feem foreign to his circumftances. A man dhould not wear a French dress till he could give an account of the beft French authors; and thould be

verfed in all the Oriental languages before he thould preime to wear a diamond.”

On this fcheme of my worthy predeceffor I cannot refrain from making a remark, which probably has occurred already to most of my readers, namely, how melancholy a circunftance it is in the fate of us Projectors, that our fchemes, whether adopted or rejected, are almott equally fhort-lived. If this plan for dreifing men according to their own genius, iuftead of that of their taylors, had been carried into execution when propofed, it is plain it would not haye defcended to our times, nor, perhaps, have furvived the learned contriver by many years. Indeed I am fomewhat doubtful (for hiftory is filent) whether it was not actually attempted, and whether it did not fail by one of thofe confpiracies between pride

In exemplifying this, I fhall not fpeak of the mafquerade dreffes of that antient place of entertainment for man and horfe" called Newmarket, where nobles appear to be jockies and jockies nobles, and where, we may fay with the author of Ecclefiaftes, we "have feen fervants upon horfes, and princes walking as fervants." Nor fhall I go upon the Royal Exchange, where men tranfact bufinels for thousands to whom it would appear charity to give farthings, and lend money to minifters of fate with the appearance of Jews coming to bargain for their old cloaths. Such transformations may be among the privileges of rank and wealth, which are not to be touched by an unlicenfed pen. My prefent object is rather to advert to the fyftem of fhabbinefs introduced fomne years ago by certain of the tribe of modern philofophers, who, in their endeavours to overturn all former things, began with the enticing example of perfonal uncleannefs, as an illustration, undoubtedly a very ftriking one, of the dignity. of genius and the beauty of virtue; or, perhaps, as an attempt to prove, that the beft fubftitute for a throne is a dunghill. If fo, the attempt was ingenious; but I must do them the juftice to fay, that this, as well as all their other endeavours, have been very much mifunderflood by the world at large, and that it was not always right to infer what they meant merely from what they faid. For my own part, having not only perufed their writings, but

7

having liftened to much of their converfation, and having beheld many of the only reforms they ever effected, I am willing to believe, that their regard

to be enacted, that fuch a mark of diftinction fhall not be worn by unquali fied perfons; and that no man fhall be permitted to difpenfe

tude" was oftener to be taken in the literal than in the metaphorical fenfe. With regard to the ftate, I think I have difcovered, that it was not monarchy but foap which they wished to put down; and, with refpect to the Church, I am humbly of opinion they objected not fo much to the order of bishops as to the inftitution of laun dreffes; and would even have tolerated cathedrals had they been permitted to burn washing-tubs. And while they pretended to rail againft Lords and Commons, it was evident to me that their real averfion was to barbers and hair-dreffers. Nay, many of them, in the paft days of what was fuppofed to be political frenzy, would have fubmitted their heads to the axe rather than to the comb. Thus, while they contended for the purity of their principles, they maintained an irreconcile able quarrel with the whiteness of lineu. Now, that I am juftified in put ting this favourable conftruction on the intentions of our modern philofophers, and in deducing their intentious from their actions rather than from their words, will appear from the following evident circumftance, namely, that their writings have either been configned to oblivion, or employed in affairs as far remote from decency as their hearts could wish, while the flovenlinefs of their drefs ftill remains a diftinguishing feature, and what they think a fure and certain indication of "original genius," greatnefs of mind," wonderful power of thinking," and a "turn for free enquiry."

But as this philofophy of foulness has been of late adopted by others, who do not partake of either the political or religious fentiments of the beforenientioned reformers, who have neither been hooted out of fociety for their principles, nor indicted at the Old Bailey for their patriotifm, and who, for want of foreign illumination, cannot fee the connexion between republican governments and greafy fmall-clothes, it may be neceflary to revive Mr. SHENSTONE'S plan, with fuch alterations as the great changes which have taken place fince his time thall require. If dirty drefs, therefore, is to be accounted a criterion of genius, it ought

who cannot

give fome proof that he is entitled to fuch an honourable exemption by fome uncommon effort of intellect, forks that he is likely to become a fhining character without the aid of the "patent blacking."

Poets, I obferve, are very much gi ven to this kind of drefs, infomuch that it may be reckoned the uniform of the fons of Apollo. Having read that all eminent poets have been poor, their imaginations form an infeparable con-1 nexion between rhymes and rags, and are for fupporting the garb of antient genius long after the neceffity has difappeared. But fuch afpiring bards ought to know, that their value is to be estimated by the current prices of Paternofter-row, and not the higglings of Duke's place. I muft, therefore, infift that they do not prefume on any thing unfightly and difgufting, until, by an examination, they have been confidered as entitled to take the va rious degrees of foulness, or, if they have ftudied in France or Germany, to be admitted ad eundem in our Universi ties. In a word, they must be qualified for fhabbinefs before they are allowed to impofe upon the world by it. A few fonnets or elegies in the Magazines or News-papers may, perhaps, obtain an exemption from the razor for a week; a good tragedy may juftify the writer in wearing his thirt as many nights as it runs, but, if dd, he must be compelled to fhift, as a proof of his want of genius. Even a few prologues or Vauxhall fongs may enable a man to be independent of a brush or a towel; but nothing less than an Epic poem from twelve to twentyfour books ought to make any writer fancy that he has a right to thock the delicacy of women, or to produce any of thofe hemiftichs and parenthefes which can be filled up only by a needle and thread.

With refpect to philofophers, the refrictions ought to be equally fevere, and no man permitted to fancy himself a Bacon or a Locke merely because he has a confirmed averfion to change his habits. Writers of travels may have a right to more foils thau other authors; and, if they have made a trip to Paris, it may be characteristic to offend the

feufes