These two burdens, civil and religious oppression, hold all nations in bondage where they prevail ;-these are laid on by the power of Princes, and the power of Priests. In some nations the Prince and the Clergy act in concert to fix the burden upon the people: slavery there seems one connected load of bondage. Mahumedism seems a burden of this sort. Religion among the Mahumedans is an engine of state policy. However, this burden seems to be compounded of two parts; idolatry, and civil oppression: no man can say he has any property. In Popish countries the case is much the same; there is only this difference-the Magistrate lays on the one burden, and the Priests lay on the other, and they may properly be said to be two, because they respect two different policies:-the Magistrate has also a burden laid upon him by the Priests by church authority.

In case the King should not be so tractable as they would require, they were wont to have a method to make him bear his burden patiently. They used him as Balaam did his ass; belaboured him with church censures, and threatened him with deprivation. But of later times Princes have become so obstinate, that they have bruised the Pope's foot against the wall, and almost kicked him off; for he had always the assurance, when he laid on a burden, to get upon the top of it. Soon may all the Kings of Europe see their own interest, and totally reject his authority. The common people are, notwithstanding, still oppressed with two burdens. The Prince lays upon them a burden of taxes at his pleasure, and the Clergy fix another, to make it balance fairly. And they are so much of Issachar's character, that they voluntarily stoop, and take on their burdens.

In the burden of civil oppression is contained so much as the Prince bath need of for all the purposes of his pride and ambition-and if it be the same in all countries where arbitrary government prevails, this burden will comprehend item for all things that a man possesseth. This was once the burden of Britain, during the unhappy reign of the Stuarts; it contained in it several articles, such as tonnage and poundage, licence to dress meat, patent for soap, cards and dice, and pins, &c. This burden was fixed upon the subjects by the royal prerogative; it was increased and alleviated according to his Majesty's gracious pleasure. This was a very grievous burden, for it extended to all the necessaries of life. A Christian could not call his head his own, without paying for it; nor durst any subject suffer the smoke of his chimney to ascend towards heaven, without paying a modus to the King for that privilege. The King of Britain was then the Prince of the power of the air, as well as King of Britain and and Ireland. If all nations where the Prince is arbitrary have such a burden imposed upon them, they had need of much strength and patience.

In those nations where Popery prevails, there is a burden of religious slavery laid upon the people by the Priests: this consists

of

1

7 of item for all things in heaven and earth,-together with a severe restraint upon the consciences of men, not to think or act contrary to the judgment of the church. This burden contains several parcels of very ponderous goods; such as the canons of the church, the decrees of councils, the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome; all these men must receive, however absurd they may appear to them, upon the pain of purgatory or hell-torments for ever. In a word, every man in that communion must believe almost every thing but the Scriptures, which are indeed entirely excluded from this heavy burden.

In case any who have these burdens laid upon them prove any way refractory or perverse, they are put in mind of their duty by very powerful arguments. The holy office of the inquisition have several spurs for such perverse asses as will not bear their burdens with patience. They may kick and spurn as they will, but they may as well think of bringing Rome to London, as 'think to get clear of their burdens. As in England there are schools for training horses to learn them their exercise, so they have schools for training such asses as they conceive do not bear their burdens with patience-dungeons, where neither light or 'sunshine ever enter, the very picture of the mansions of the dead tortures, which furies in council only could contrive, are here the sad monitors of obedience to miserable mortals. Strange, that nothing else could be contrived to convince the consciences of men, but what is fit for the most stubborn and sluggish of animals! Can bodily torture convince the mind? Can hunger and pain give evidence to absurdity, and confinement reconcile contradictions? Kind Jesus, this was never thy contrivance; whose law is love, whose conduct is all mercy. How can kingdoms bear such a yoke? How can millions of reasonable creatures submit to such unreasonable slavery? It must have cost much time and pains thus to have deprived men of their sense and reason. The human mind must be capable of sad depravity, to submit to such abject bondage and slavery. Can it be natural to men thus to degenerate into a state of brutal stupefaction? So many millions of rational beings, endowed with moral capacities, having all the full exercise of the corporeal functions, to submit to be treated like brutes; what a shocking consideration! Could not these nations free themselves, by making use of those powers the Author of Nature hath endowed them with? They have lost their guide, and are destitute of a leader. Reason, that guide of mankind, is enslaved, and held captive by enthusiasm and servile superstition. But is there not some original cause why men degenerate so far below themselves? Can perfect nature relapse so far into barbarity? If all the principles are pure, what is the reason of such a departure from rationality? There is a cause; reason is duped by the passions;-those who have address enough to command the one, will also overcome the other-when men's eyes are put out, they grope in the

dark.

dark. Heaven send the light of the Gospel to open the eyes of such blinded mortals, that they may see their own interest, and assert their own privileges. What can induce men in sacred offices thus to play the devil with their feliow-creatures? Interest, sordid self-interest, is the cause. Long hath this principle been the ruling one in the hearts of the clergy of the church of Rome instead of pointing out the way of righteousness to men, and teaching them the way of salvation, they have long treated them like asses, and kept them in ignorance. Who gave them that right? Are not all men equally free? Hath not God made of one blood all the kindreds of the earth? But thoughtless mortals give up their privileges through indolence and inactivity. What can men do without instruction? We are all infants before we be men;-instruction is necessary to make us wise. Suffer men to follow the first bent of their inclinations, and it will be a miracle if they do well. But nature is not suffered to take her own way; for if there be none to instruct us, there will be hundreds ready to seduce us: bad as men are, they would not be so ill if they were not seduced. Shall parents neglect to instruct us in the rudiments of true wisdom, and not provide tutors to conduct us in the paths of knowledge, the world and designing men will not neglect to make their own of us, to the ruin of both soul and body.

Where men are no sooner out of the hands of their nurses than they fall into the hands of priests, whose leading maxim is, that ignorance is the mother of devotion, how can they understand their own interest? The first who gave up their privileges, by neglecting to follow after true knowledge, justly deserved to bear a heavy burden;-but what shall be said of their unfortunate children, who, through their negligence and inactivity, are trained up in ignorance, and know not how to deliver themselves? Could not the dictates of nature have directed them otherwise? Could not the law of the heart have admonished them against such absurd seduction? Alas! men are capable of being instructed, but cannot learn without teaching. But how shall we vindicate the conduct of Providence towards the many thousands of them that sit in darkness? Why should children suffer for the iniquity of their fathers? Could not the Almighty have sent them the means of knowledge, as a compensation for their father's deficiency? He could, no doubt.

But what, if we shall atfirm, that this judgment upon several generations of misled and wretched mortals has been suffered to continue, because they abused the dictates of common sense? We read of a people that loved to be seduced: "The prophets prophesy for a reward, and the people love to have it so." Justly do they deserve slavery who choose it.

When men are instructed in principles of true or false knowledge, it must be by either the use or abuse of their senses: false teachers cannot even lead men wrong, without in some measure

dealing

dealing with their sensations. Sensation is naturally ingrafted in our nature; our feelings are the workmanship of our Creator. In matters of speculation it may be easy to lead us astray; and as to what things are not the objects of our senses, it may not be difficult to impose upon us: but to believe absurdity, in matters our senses are judges of, must be choosing our own delusions. Suppose, through our ignorance of testimony, men may mislead us, yet in what comes under the notice of our senses they cannot, unless we please. The senses of the clown are generally as quick as those of the philosopher, and it requires no more but to use them, as to those things that are their objects, to keep clear of seduction. Though every man is not able to judge of the orthodoxy of a creed, and the truth of the canons of the church, yet they are able, by the exercise of their senses, to know that bread is not flesh, nor wine blood; and that the same body cannot be in a thousand places at the same time. When men thus depart from common sense, which their Maker has endowed them with, it is but just to deprive them of other advantages, which there is a likelihood they would give up through indolence, as they do their senses. The Almighty knows what use men would make of better enjoyments; and when he tries them with common mercies, which they abuse, he vindicates his providence in withholding others of higher value, as a punishment of their crime. for abusing what he hath bestowed. "He that is faithful in little will be faithful also in that which is greater."

Such as are endowed with common sense, and depart from it, or give it up, but ili deserve to be entrusted with the sublimest truths of religion. What! common sense is the foundation of religion. Such as depart from, or are destitute of it, could not really be truly religious. When we consider the situation of many deluded nations and people, we cannot but pity them, but at the same time cannot hold them guiltless for giving up their senses. Such as have had the happiness of enjoying better instruction than others who remain in ignorance, upon a little reflection may find they have nothing to boast of. The inhabitants of Italy and Spain are not the only people who receive absurdities. In a land where freedom is the privilege and boast of almost every subject, we may perhaps find a tame enough submission to several absurdities.

Not, you will say, in Britain,-a land renowned for all sorts of liberty, a nation to which there is none equal upon the face of the earth, that we know of. We have reason indeed to be thankful to the Almighty for the liberty we enjoy: but Britain is only comparatively free. It matters not whether men become slaves or are made so, if they are really in bondage; Issachar couched down, and became a slave. To the charge of our Sovereign nothing can be laid that tends to affect our liberties. But perhaps there is, yet something in our laws that fixes a burden upon several of the subjects. Is a man entirely free, who is subjected to losses

and

and disappointments by the laws of his country on account of his religion? Is he altogether a free subject, who is faithful to civil government, and whose principles teach him to be so, and yet is deprived of some of its advantages on account of his method of worshipping God? Is he free of a burden, who must either submit to a test act, contrary to the dictates of his own conscience, or lose a privilege that may redound to the welfare of his country?

It is easy for such as have enlarged consciences to call this no hardship, and such as love to make a monopoly of privileges to say he may let it alone: but where then is our much boasted-of liberty, when it only consists in negatives of this kind? Even this is not always the case. Shall a good subject refuse the calls of his King and his Country in the time of danger, to help them out of difficulty? On the one hand he might be reckoned disaffected, and on the other he could not miss to be unconscientious. Here the laws of his country lay him under bondage, and bring him into a grievous dilemma. A burden this is undoubtedly, however light it may seem to such as are not immediately concerned. Can such slavery be necessary to make faithful subjects, and good members of society? Or do not such restrictions tend to fill places of power and influence with men of no principle? Strange, that men cannot be supposed faithful, just, and good, unless they kneel down before an altar, and communicate in a way their consciences remonstrate against. Is not this something like laying a snare for our brethren? There is certainly no reason to suspect the loyalty of all those who scruple to commu-. nicate with the Church of England; nor is such a compliance any evidence of a true member of society, or a good subject. There is even reason to suppose, that persons who have been otherwise educated do not act sincerely in such a compliance: at least it is a great snare to their honesty. Can the kingdom of Jesus Christ be so dependent upon the kingdoms of this world, as that it cannot subsist, if any be admitted to civil preferment without giving security for their behaviour towards it? In what part of the New Testament do we find this alliance between church and state founded, so that a man cannot be found qualified for any office in the one, without first becoming a member of the other? It is but reasonable to have some New Testament warrant for a matter of so great importance. Arguments taken from convenience, and the alteration of circumstances, will not bear any weight with a sincere conscience, till once it is made good, that the alteration of the kingdoms of this world make a change in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

It has been often affirmed, that our circumstances are much altered since the times of Christ and his Apostles, which is an undoubted truth; but this does not, I hope, infer that the laws of Christ's kingdom have undergone any alteration. There have been many great alterations since the Magna Charta of England

was