glaring throne; and how many are thy warm votari.: in America, and thy sanguine advocates in England!

1

I shall esteem myself happy, Sir, if this check licentiousness recommend itself to your conscience as Protestant, and to your candour as a well-wisher to th cause of true liberty. Think not the plainness, wit which I have addressed you, springs from malice or dis respect. Though have bluntly attacked your errors, sincerely love and honour you as an enemy to tyranny and a (mistaken) assertor of British liberty. Therefore. whilst I blame your dangerous performance, I gladly de justice to your good meaning; and I cordially join you.. where you express a loyal ardent wish, that a speedy reconciliation may take place betwixt us and our Colonies, upon an honourable, constitutional basis, and that our beloved Sovereign may long live to sway the sceptre over a free people; provided you do not mean by a "free people," a tumultuous, mobbing people, making liberty to consist in refusing to pay taxes, and in giving to the scriptural yoke of civil government, the opprobrious name of " abject slavery."

Should you accuse me, Sir, as you do Mr. Wesley, of "inflaming the minds of the people here against our American brethren ;" you will do me as much injustice as you do to my friend. Our only design is to promote a proper obedience to those parts of the gospel of peace, which enjoin us a due subjection to our superiors; and to enforce the Articles of Religion, which the last Reformers drew up, to keep over-doing Protestants from the enthusiasm of wild Republicans. Far from being prejudiced against the Colonists, I feel a deep concern for their spiritual and temporal welfare. Yea, such is my partiality to them, and my fear of a greater effusion of the blood of Britons, and sons of Britons, that I even wish the government would make the easy yoke of which they causelessly complain, easier still; by granting them some privileges, denied not only to mil. lions of Britons here, but also to the members of parliament, and to the king's own brothers, who, whilst

they are out of England, are all taxed without being consulted. I humbly wish that our legislators would condescend to talk with the Colonists, about the taxes which suit their country and circumstances best. And as British Senators know how to pity the prejudices of mankind, especially the prejudices of sons of Britons, with respect to the precious blessing of liberty; I wish that the king and parliament would extend their greatest mercy to subjects, who have been hurried out of the way of loyalty chiefly by their inattention to the blessings which they enjoy, and by the delusive hopes, with which, it is to be feared, some of our own countrymen have rashly flattered, and artfully seduced them. In a word, I ardently wish, that, upon the return of the Colonists to their duty, the government would bind them to their mother country, both by the silken cords of pardoning love, and by the silver bands of some prerogatives, which may convince them, that Great Britain considers them, not only as subjects, but also as younger brothers.

Such kindness, together with the scourge of a civil war, which they so severely feel already, would probably attach them to the parent State for ever. Should this be the case, how great will be the joy of those who properly value the blessings of peace and order! And how full the disappointment of the demon of discord, who envies us the singular blessings which we enjoy ! Great Britain and America will then become the fixed, the unrivalled seats of Truth, Arts, Sciences, and Commerce. They will collect the treasures of the Old and New World. They will play into each other's hards the wealth of the Universe. And, joined together, they will be more than a match for their combined enemies. So shall genuine Protestantism, sober Liberty, uninterrupted Peace, and growing Prosperity, conspire to crown the richest island, and finest continent in the world. Happy, for ever happy will they be, if their riches and grandeur do not corrupt and intoxicate them : And if civil and religious phrenzy never hinder them more, from paying an humble regard to our Lord's im

portant precept, Render to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's; and unto God, the things which are God's. That you, Sir, I, and all our fellow-labourers in the gospel, may faithfully practise, and zealously preach this neglected part of the doctrine of Christ ;-that our most sanguine patriotism may always be tempered by a due sense of what we owe to our governors:-And that our warmest loyalty may always be attended with a proper consciousness of what we owe to God, to our fellowcitizens, and to posterity:- Are the Christian, Constitutional prayers, which I ardently offer to the King of kings, and in which I invite you to join,

Rev. Sir,

Your affectionate Brother, and obedient Servant,

J. F.

FARTHER CONFRONTED WITH

REASON, SCRIPTURE, & THE CONSTITUTION:

BEING

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE

DANGEROUS POLITICS

TAUGHT BY THE

REV. MR. EVANS, M. A., & THE REV. DR. PRICE:

WITH

A SCRIPTURAL PLEA

FOR THE

REVOLTED COLONIES.

By J. FLETCHER, Vicar of Madeley, Salop.

"Skill in Politics contributeth not a little to the understanding of Divinity. I learned more from Mr. Lawson than from any Divine: Especially his instigating me to the study of Politics, in which he much lamented the ignorance of Divines, did prove a singular benefit to me."

The Rev. Mr. R. Baxter's Life, p. 107, 108.