An edifying Lesson for the poor SWINISH MUL∣TITUDE.
[From the Morning Post of January 1, 1794.]
I tell thee, Mufti, if the world were wise,
They would not wag one finger in your quarrels;
Your heaven you promise, but our earth you covet;
Ye phaetons of mankind, who sire that world,
Which you were sent by preaching but to warm.
DRYDEN.
The author of a pamphlet called, "Peace and Reform," charges our divines, with recom∣mending a conduct equally sanguinary with the French; and infers there from, that French prin∣ciples of liberty are no more to be condemned on account of the excesses committed by a part of that nation, than the British constitution is to be condemned on account of the excesses recom∣mended from the pulpit. The following is the passage we allude to:
THE fast-day, instead of being passed in con∣formity with its professed purpose, in hu∣miliation
Page 132before God, in prayers for the conver∣sion of unbelievers, the reformation of ourselves, and the general peace and happiness of mankind; instead of a day on which every priest made an ex∣traordinary exertion of his powers in imploring the benevolence of the Almighty to enlighten the minds, to soften the hearts, and to spare the blood of his people, it was chiefly celebrated by the most dreadful maledictions. The Supreme Being, who, true religion tells us, enjoins brotherly love, for∣giveness, humanity and virtue, was addressed by our Divines as if he had been more merciless and blood-thirsty than any divinity that ever disgraced Paganism; and the temples of the God of Peace were made to resound with imprecations, from which even our ancestors would have recoiled when engaged in the worship of their serocious Odin, whom they revered as
the terrible and severe God; the active roaring Deity; the fa∣ther of slaughter; the God that carrieth deso∣lation and fire, and nameth those that are to be flain.
†The solemnity of the scene was well calculated for rousing and misleading the passions, and every artifice was employed to excite hatred towards the French, and provoke us to fury. The priesthood, as well as the princes, felt themselves interested in the cause, and their zeal shook the pulpit with exhortations to vengeance. The bishop of Glou∣cester, before the house of lords, thus spoke of that nation:—
Infatuated and remorseless peo∣ple! The measure of your iniquities seems a
• length to be full; the hour of retribution is coming fast upon you! Drunk with the blood of your fellow-citizens, you have dared to spread your ravages abroad; rousing the surrounding nations, in justice to themselves and the common
Page 133cause of humanity, to confederate against you, in order to execute the wrath of God on your de∣voted heads.
His lordship, however, might have been restrained from such rash denunciations of divine judgment, by the awful admonitions of the founder of that religion which he pretended to preach.
And Jesus answering, said, suppose ye these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
And those eighteen on whom the Tower of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jeru∣salem? I tell you nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
†The other Fast Day Sermons were in unison with that of the bishop of Gloucester, with a very few exceptions. The Rev. J. Gardener, at Taun∣ton, said,
Shall we not labour to bring such per∣sons (as the French, and reformers in general) to a proper sense of their duty, or exterminate them and their opinions?
and the Rev. Mr. Bromley, at Fitzroy Chapel hopes
that the reck∣oning which God will make will not be long de∣layed against a nation, (France) which is cer∣tainly behind no other whose measure of iniqui∣ties has in any records of time
called forth his ven∣geance to erase it from the earth.‡ These are the sentiments of our HIGH church pastors: such is the religion, the benevolence, the humanity they teach! To exterminate for opinion! What more did Marat ever desire! To be the instrument of God in executing his vengeance, Mahomet used
Page 134the same plea for all his murders and rapine! To erase a whole nation from the earth!!! Neither Mahomet, Marat, nor Roberspierre, have equalled this! How limited and insignificant have been their proscriptions compared with those of our own pious pastors, who would
seal on the forehead as the servants of God
† all those who make war against France; who would
send myriads of locusts, with crowns like gold upon their heads, and faces like men, invested with scor∣pion power, to torment the unsealed
enthu∣siasts of that distracted nation, and
let loose the angels of the Euphrates to slaughter a third part of mankind.
‡Similar passages from the sermons preached on that christian day would fill a volume. Most of them tend to inflame the people to a war of exter∣mination, and insinuate the destruction of those who desire a parliamentary reform. Surely our di∣vines cannot be so much mistaken as to imagine these harangues gratifying to the head of the church? Their affection towards the crown, in∣deed, is natural. The bishop of Durham's promo∣tion has taught them the road to preferment; and my lord of Gloucester has been long looking for a translation: but not such as Elijah's: His present ambition looks no higher than Canterbury.
Nor were the sermons publicly preached more inflammatory than the writings anonymously pub∣lished by our high church men: one of which, in Birmingham, under the fictitious name of Job Nott, thus speaks of those whom it calls
New-fashioned, restless dissenters,
and the members of a society instituted on the principles of Mr. Pitt and the duke of Richmond for procuring a reform of parliament,
Do be off; only think of the New Drop; you may be recorded in the New-gate
Page 135Calender; transportation may reform you; you deserve to be highly exalted; did you ever see the New Drop!
and concludes with wish∣ing that these dissenters and reformers, whom it deems factious, "tied in their garters may swing." Yet the author of this elegant book calls himself a friend to conciliation and unanimity, a moderate man, a man of peace! He may be so for a Birming∣ham man; but if such are the friends to peace and moderation in that town, can we wonder at the atrocities, which have taken place there, and still may be repeated, while Job Nott, and such publi∣cations are publicly sold with a bookseller's name to them, and are even boasted of by their authors.
