a true lover of the church, I would rather find the inclinations of the people favourable to episcopacy in general, than see a majority of prelates cried up by those who are known enemies to the character. Nor, indeed, has anything given me more offence for several years past, than to observe how some of that bench have been caressed by certain persons, and others of them openly celebrated by the infamous pens of atheists, republicans, and fanatics.

Time and mortality can only remedy these inconveniences in the church, which are not to be cured, like those in the state, by a change of ministry. If we may guess the temper of a convocation from the choice of a prolocutor, as it is usual to do that of a house of commons by the speaker, we may expect great things from that reverend body, who have done themselves much reputation, by pitching upon a gentleman of so much piety, wit, and learning, for that office, and one who is so thoroughly versed in those parts of knowledge which are proper for it. * I am sorry that the three Latin speeches, delivered upon presenting the prolocutor, were not made public; they might, perhaps, have given us some light into the disposition of each house; and, besides, one of them is said to be so peculiar in the style and matter, as might have made up in entertainment what it wanted in instruction. †

* Atterbury, afterwards Bishop of Rochester.

+ He probably alludes to that made by Dr Tennison, Archbishop of Canterbury; a dull and heavy, though very worthy man. He was a keen adherent of the Whig party.

No. XXII.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1711.

Nullæ sunt occultiores insidiæ, quam eæ, quæ latent in simulatione officii, aut in aliquo necessitudinis nomine.

It is extremely difficult to explore those designs which are conceived under the veil of duty, and lie hid under the pretence of friendship.

The following answer is written in the true style, and with the usual candour of such pieces; which I have imitated to the best of my skill, and doubt not but the reader will be extremely satisfied with it.

The Examiner cross-examined; or, A full Answer to the last Examiner.

If I durst be so bold with this author, I would gladly ask him a familiar question:-Pray, sir, who made you an examiner ? He talks in one of his insipid papers of eight or nine thousand corruptions, while we were at the head of affairs; yet in all this time he has hardly produced fifty:

But I shall confine myself at present to his last paper. He tells us, the queen began her reign with a noble benefaction to the church. Here's priestcraft with a witness! This is the constant language of your highfliers,

religion of the

But this is not

to call those who are hired to teach the magistrate, by the name of the church. all; for, in the very next line, he says, It was hoped the nation would have followed this example. You see the faction begins already to speak out; this is an open demand for the abbey-lands. This furious zealot would have us priest-ridden again, like our popish ancestors ; but it is to be hoped the government will take timely care to suppress such audacious attempts; else we have spent so much blood and treasure to very little purpose, in maintaining religion and the Revolution. But what can we expect from a man, who at one blow endeavours to ruin our trade? A country, says he, may flourish (these are his own words) without being the common receptacle for all nations, religions, and languages. What! we must immediately banish or murder the Palatines; forbid all foreign merchants not only the Exchange but the kingdom; persecute the dissenters with fire and faggot; and make it high treason to speak any other tongue but English. In another place, he talks of a serpent with seven heads, which is a manifest corruption of the text; for the words, seven heads, are not mentioned in that verse. However, we know what serpent he would mean; a serpent with fourteen legs, or indeed no serpent at all, but seven great men, who were the best ministers, the truest Protestants, and the most disinterested patriots that ever served a prince. But nothing is so inconsistent as this writer. I know not

whether to call him a Whig or a Tory, a Protestant or a Papist; he finds fault with convocations ; says, they are assemblies strangely contrived, and yet lays the fault upon us, that we bound their hands : I wish we could have bound their tongues too. But, as fast as their

hands were bound, they could make a shift to hold their pens, and have their share in the guilt of ruining the hopefullest party and ministry that ever prescribed to a crown. This captious gentleman is angry to see a majority of prelates cried up by those who are enemies to the character; now I always thought, that the concessions of enemies were more to a man's advantage than the praise of his friends. Time and mortality, he says, can only remedy these inconveniences in the church; that is, in other words, when certain bishops are dead, we shall have others of our own stamp. Not so fast; you are not yet so sure of your game. We have already got one comfortable loss in Spain, * although by a general of our own; for joy of which, our junto had a merry meeting at the house of their great proselyte, † on the very day we received the happy news. One or two more such blows would perhaps set us right again, and then we can employ mortality as well as others. He concludes with wishing, that three letters, spoken when the prolocutor was presented, were made public. I suppose he would be content with one, and that is more than we shall humour him to grant. However, I hope he will allow it possible to have grace, without either eloquence or Latin, which is all I shall say to this malicious innuendo.

Having thus, I hope, given a full and satisfactory answer to the Examiner's last paper, I shall now go on

* At Brihuega, where, by some mismanagement, the British troops, under General Stanhope, were surprised and made prisoners, almost within hearing of General Stahremberg, who commanded the rest of the confederate army. This mischance happened 21st November 1701.

Probably the Earl of Nottingham.

to a more important affair, which is, to prove, by several undeniable instances, that the late ministry and their abettors were true friends to the church. It is yet, I confess, a secret to the clergy wherein this friendship' did consist. For information, therefore, of that reverend body, that they may never forget their benefactors, as well as of all others who may be equally ignorant, I have determined to display our merits to the world upon that weighty article. And I could wish, that what I am to say were to be written in brass, for an eternal memorial; the rather, because for the future the church may endeavour to stand unsupported by those patrons, who expired in doing it their last good office, and will never rise to preserve it any more.

Let us, therefore, produce the pious endeavours of these church defenders, who were its patrons, by their power and authority, as well as ornaments of it, by their exemplary lives.

First, St Paul tells us, there must be heresies in the church, that the truth may be manifest; and, therefore, by due course of reasoning, the more heresies there are, the more manifest will the truth be made. This being maturely considered by these lovers of the church, they endeavoured to propagate as many heresies as they could, that the light of truth might shine the clearer.

Secondly, To show their zeal for the church's defence, they took the care of it entirely out of the hands of God Almighty, (because that was a foreign jurisdiction,) and made it their own creature, depending altogether upon them; and issued out their orders to Tindal, and others, to give public notice of it.

Thirdly, Because charity is the most celebrated of all Christian virtues, therefore they extended theirs beyond