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PREACHING OF THE CLERGY.

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returned at elections, and many considered it as the first step to a breach of the Toleration, the overthrow of which was visibly aimed at. The Lords, however, passed the bill, the ninth of December, but clogged it with several amendments, which they thought would be rejected by the Commons, and after some fruitless conferences, occasioned its loss. This was a great mortification to the Tories, for the Court had summoned all its strength upon the occasion, even to Prince George of Denmark, who was himself a Lutheran, and an occasional conformist, but voted against his conscience. It is reported that he said to Lord Wharton, when about to divide against him, " My heart is vid you."*

Of the temper which then reigned in the dominant party, we have a lively portraiture drawn by an historian of the time; and the reader will retrace the features in surveying the incidents of the succeeding chapter. "At that time some of the clergy, whose numbers still increased, exerted the utmost of their eloquence in preaching not only against the Dissenters, the Whigs, and the Ministry, but even against the queen herself, and the principles of moderation. They also expatiated at large in their sermons to the people, upon the old proceedings of Cromwell's time, and the dire misfortunes of King Charles; and he who inveighed the most bitterly, and filled his flock with the most dreadful apprehensions, was the most highly applauded by his party.†

Although the occasional bill was promoted by the ministry for political purposes, yet there were other reasons equally ignoble that procured for it clerical support. In their violent management, however, they over-reached themselves, driving many from the church who had before resorted there. Foe traces the measure to the city of Coventry. "Here," says he, "we found it appear fresh in embryo, in a printed pamphlet, called, A Letter from a Friend in the Country,

De

Oldmixon's Hist. Engl. iii. 299.

+ Cunningham, i. 319.

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DE FOE'S ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE BILL. to a Member of Parliament.' In this work, the plan of the bill is laid down, with the reasons and advantages to the party; and to shroud its true birth-place, it was first said to be drawn by Sir Bartholomew Shower and his Exeter friends. But at last it was owned by Dr. Armstead of Coventry, and the famed Mr. Kimberley of the same place. The scheme was afterwards conveyed to Oxford, the high-church party having bit at the graceful bait, and espoused the blessed cause, to the eternal honour and glory of their politics as well as charity. Before I enter farther into the history of this procedure, I must do the high-church so much justice as to inquire into the character of the authors of this celebrated bill; and that I may not put Mr. Lesley to the trouble of denying the fact, I'll produce living vouchers at his demand for every tittle. Mr. Kimberley is the incumbent of one of the two large parishes in the city of Coventry. He is the son of an old dissenting minister outed in 1662, at Rydmerly in Worcestershire, and was picked out by the party at Oxford as a champion against the Dissenters, who, in this particular city, lived in the greatest unity with their conforming brethren. They came generally to church, and had no sermons at their meetings, but in the interval of the public hours of worship. But this gentleman, by his violence, has driven all from the church; his fiery spirit having made men abhor a place where with men of temper and moderation they could formerly be content to worship. And without doubt, the fury exercised by these men is the truest method they can take to make Dissenters, and does every day drive men from the communion of the Church of England."*(D)

Review, v. 227.

(D) Jonathan, son of William Kimberley, was born in 1651, and at sixteen years of age entered as a student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where in 1673, he proceeded M. A. Entering into orders, he became a celebrated preacher in the University, and was appointed minister of Stadham, near Oxford. In the course of a short time, he became vicar of Trinity church,

HIS ENQUIRY INTO OCCASIONAL CONFORMITY. 47

Whilst the bill was pending in parliament, swarms of pamphlets were issued from the press. To the general stock of argument, De Foe had not been backward in contributing his share. It being one in which he took great interest, he returned to it again at this time, and published "An Enquiry into Occasional Conformity, shewing that the Dissenters are no ways concerned in it. Lond. 1702." 4to. The work is opened with the following just remark: "He that opposes his own judgment against the current of the times, ought to be backed with unanswerable truths; and he that has truth on his side is a fool, as well as a coward, if he is afraid to own it, because of the currency or multitude of other men's opinions." De Foe seems conscious that he had the opinion of the majority against him, which exposed him to the imputation of arrogance, as if all were in error but himself; which, if it be so, says he, "Who can help it?" He contends, that most of the people he had met with were mistaken in their notions as to the operation of the bill, which he thinks would be so far from ruining the Dissenters, that it would be the means of consolidating their interests, and enable them to distinguish their friends from their enemies. "Those among us," says he, "who conform to your church. for a place or a salary, you are welcome to take among you, and let them be a part of yourselves. All the converts you can make by the Mammon of unrighteousness, are your

own."

De Foe was not so ignorant all this time, as not to perceive the design of those who were so eager to press forward

Coventry, and chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II. In 1683, he published an assize sermon at Warwick, as he did another sermon in 1702. Under the Tory ministry at the latter end of Queen Anne, church honours flowed in fast upon him. In 1710 he was appointed chaplain to William Bromley, Speaker of the House of Commons. In the following year, he succeeded Dr. Knipe, as Prebendary of Westminster; and upon the death of Dr. Binkes in 1712, he was made Dean of Lichfield. He died March 7, 1720.

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SATIRIZES THE EXCLUSIONISTS.

the measure, which he considered to be an act of oppression, indefensible either by reason or equity. "No, Gentlemen, we don't tell you we like that part of the bill which excludes us from the native honours and preferments of our country, which are our due, our birth-right, equally with our neighbours, and to which we should be called by the suffrage of the people; and we cannot but think it a hardship beyond the power of reason to justify. But since this right must be clogged with so many inconveniences that we must mortgage our consciences to enjoy them, no man can have any charity left for us, but must presently conclude we shall freely forego such trifles for our consciences, or else that we may have no consciences at all." Referring to the

injustice practised by the ruling sect, he demands, "Is it not very hard that the Dissenter should be excluded from all places of profit, trust and honour, and at the same time shall not be excused from those which are attended with charge, trouble, and loss of time? That a Dissenter shall be pressed as a sailor to fight at sea, listed as a soldier to fight on shore, and let his merit be never so much above his fellows, shall never be capable of preferment, so much as to carry a halbert? That we must maintain our own clergy and your clergy; our own poor and your poor; pay equal taxes and equal duties; and not to be thought worthy to be trusted to set a drunkard in the stocks?" De Foe then tells them, sarcastically, "We wonder, gentlemen, you will accept our money to carry on your wars." He states the number of Dissenters at this time to be two millions.

CHAPTER IV.

De Foe publishes his "Shortest Way with the Dissenters.”—Occasion of his writing it.-Account of the Work.-Its favourable reception by the High Party.-And Effect upon the Nation.-Temper of High Churchmen.Misunderstood by the Dissenters.-He upbraids them for their Ill-usage.— His Motives for writing in the Language of Irony.-Its Effects upon his Fortunes. He is discovered to be the Author.-Complains of the dullness of his Enemies.-Is threatened with Vengeance.-Conceals himself for a time.-Proclamation for his Apprehension.—His work complained of in the House of Commons.-Ordered to be burnt.—Surrenders himself.— Publishes an Explanation of his Pamphlet.-He feels hurt at the Conduct of the Dissenters.—Brought to Trial at the Old Bailey.—Severely treated by the Attorney-General. - De Foe's Reflections upon his Conduct.— Throws himself upon the Mercy of the Queen.-Which he afterwards regrets. Betrayed by his own Counsel.-His severe Sentence.-Tutchin's Reflections upon it.-He stands in the Pillory.-Which is a season of Triumph to him.-His Resolution of Mind.-Pope's ungenerous Treatment of him.-Reprehended by Cibber.-De Foe publishes "A Hymn to the Pillory."-Cibber's Remarks upon it.—Lampoons against him.-Ruin of his Circumstances.-Tampered with by the Ministers.—His Virtue in Adversity.-Notice of some Replies to the "Shortest Way."

1702-1703.

FROM the angry direction that was now given to the popular feeling, the tone of which had been received from the party in power, some incidents arose that had an important influence, upon the circumstances of De Foe, the particulars of which will form the subject of the present chapter.

During the discussions in parliament upon Occasional Conformity, De Foe, who well knew the nature of the game that was playing by the high party, and the little impression that was to be made by sober argument, resolved now to

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