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and if, by a kind of miracle, in fuch a curfed number of men, a fecond Abel could be found, the earth would foon groan with the cries of his blood. If divines have attempted to demonftrate the existence of God from the nature of civil society, the very nature of civil fociety demonftrates the falsehood of the creed with which you compliment us. And, if the gloomy plan of such a horrid republic pleases your imaginations, go and lay the foundations of it, in fome diftant part of the earth. Be yourselves its members and governors; for no Chriftian could live there.

When the delicate pencils of the Gibbons, Reynals, and Marmontels, will paint the political scenery of the eighteenth century,--when on the extensive canvas, they will represent the gloom of long-reigning prejudice fcattering, as the clouds of night, at the approach of the rifing fun,when they will paint the poniard, drenched in human blood, fnatched from the hand of ftern PERSECUTION,--the French praying in concert with the Americans,—the Armenians invited into Ruffia,-the order of Military Merit established in favour of Proteftants, in the palace of a Catholic king,-Ireland rifing from the fea, covered with her Fabii and Scipios, pointing their fpears to distant shores, and holding forth the olive and sheaf of corn to

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their neighbours of all denominations,————when they will contraft the prefent to former times, -shew the happy refult of a change of fyftem, and prove that the world is refined,-You, painted in as frightful attitudes as the group of figures in Raphael's Judgment, with ftern fanaticism in your countenances, a bible in one hand and a fagot in the other, you, I fay, will be an exception to the general rule: the world will read with surprise, that, in feventeen hundred and eighty, there have been fanatics in England and Scotland, that gave birth to fo many illuftrious writers. Your tranfactions fhall be recorded in the appendix to the history of Jack Straw and Wat Tiler; and your chaplains and apologifts fhall be ranked with James Nailer and Hugh Peters.

And thus, Gentlemen, I finish my Apostrophe.

SHOULD Mr. Wefley, or any of his affociators, think it worth their while to make any remarks on these letters, they cannot justly expect a rejoinder. They have ftarted forth the unprovoked aggreffors; and, not fatisfied with attempting to deprive the Roman Catholics of their rights as fubjects, they have flandered and aspersed their characters. I am no ftranger to the ground on which they will attack me: either the rufty weapons of old councils, or a catalogue

talogue of old maffacres, will be drawn out of their mouldering arfenals: arms as ill fuited to the eighteenth century, as Saul's helmet was to David's head. I will be attacked with the council of Lateran, the wars of the Albigenfes, the maffacre of St. Bartholomew, &c. I am a Chriftian, and deny the tranfmigration of fouls. I am nowife concerned in paft tranfactions; or if my religion be charged with them, I have in my hands the cruel arms of retaliation :-----

I fhall divide the charge into two branches, -barbarous actions, and barbarous doctrine. If Mr. Wesley reckons all those who are not, or have not been, in communion with the fee of Rome, in the number of heretics, and himself amongst them, as doubtlefs he does, I fhall then lay at his door, all the abominable and feditious doctrines taught by those whom he ftyles heretics, from the time of Simon the Magician, down to our days, the impurities of the Gnoftics; the enchantments of the Ophites; the perjury and frauds of the Prifcillianifts; the errors of the Albigenfes, and millions befides. If, from thefe diftant times, I make a transition to a nearer æra, I shall prove to him, from the works, not only of infignificant writers of the reformed religion, but of the very founders of the reformation, who affumed as much power over their followers, as the pope affumes over

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the Catholics, that they taught doctrines cruel, immoral, and feditious; and that the moft horrid barbarities were committed in confequence of those doctrines. Calvin not only commits heretics to the flames, but moreover writes a book in juftification of his proceedings: and in his commentaries on the fcriptures, he teaches, that "Ufury is lawful." Luther, Malancthon, and Bucer, have authorized polygamy, and permitted a prince to marry a fecond wife during the life of the first. The decrees of the fynod of Dort, caufed great perfecutions in Holland. Knox and his followers propagated the gospel with fire and fword. I have already mentioned the doctrine of John Huss, and his mafter Wickliff, fo inimical to fovereigns.

If I take a review of the greatest champions who, within these four hundred years, have undertaken the Herculean task of overthrowing the kingdom of Antichrift, I fee them all claiming a miflion from Heaven, as well as Mr. Wesley;

In the news-paper this word is made venery, by an error of the Prefs, which Mr. O'Leary alludes to, at the conclufion; and for which, and fome other errors of fmaller note, the printer made the following apology:

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"The printer affures Mr. O'Leary, that the errors of "the prefs, which he complains of, were not occafioned by any defign or wilful neglect, but by the lateness of "the night, and the hurry unavoidably attendant on news-paper publications."

Wesley, and still overturning thrones and empires. I fee Germany deluged with oceans of blood; boors headed by fanatical preachers, promifing the deluded multitude to receive the bullets in their fleeves, attacking their princes and fovereigns; taylors paving their way to the throne over heaps of mangled carcaffes, in order to re-establish the kingdom of Jerufalem; apoftles heading armies, and commanding, by their kaft will, their dearly-beloved children reformed from the errors of Popery, to make a drum* of their skins, in order to roufe the faints to battle; the streets of London enfanguined with the gore of peaceable citizens, deftroyed by the fifth-monarchy men, proclaiming king Jefus ; communion-tables ftained with the blood of Proteftant bishops; fcaffolds reeking with the blood of Proteftant kings; folemn leagues and covenants fealed for the extirpation of Papifts and Malignants, and entered into with as much. eagerness as Annibal entered Italy, after fwearing the deftruction of the Romans, upon the Carthaginian altars; the poniard lifted by the hand of religious madness, and committing fuch flaughter and carnage, that people propofe the difagreeable and odious problem, "Whether religion has been of greater use " than harm to mankind ?"

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Zifca, a follower of John Hufs.

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A name given to the Proteftants of the established church.

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