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gion, endeared by manners, and adorned by

arts.

Let us now enquire what is the present state of these great fundamentals of focial happiness, and whether any better period can be pointed out, compared to which their present state may be justly pronounced a state of declenfion.

The conftitution of England has undergone many changes: The monarch, the nobles and the people, have cach in their turn for a time deftroyed that proper balance, in which it's excellence confifts. In feudal times the aristocratic power preponderated, and the kingdom was torn to pieces with civil diftractions. From the acceffion of Henry the Seventh to the breaking out of the great rebellion the power of the fo vereign was all but abfolute; the rapacity of that monarch, the brutality of his fucceffor, the perfecuting spirit of Mary, and the imperious prerogative of Elizabeth left fcarce a fhadow of freedom in the people; and, in spite of all the boafted glories of Elizabeth's golden days, I muft doubt if any nation can be happy, whofe lives and properties were no better fecured than thofe of her subjects actually were: In all this period the moft tranquil moments are to be found in the peaceful reign of James the Firft; yet even then the king's jus divinum was at it's height,

height, and totally overturned the scale and equipoife of the conftitution. What followed in Charles's day I need not dwell upon; a revolution enfued; monarchy was fhaken to it's foundations, and in the general fermentation and concuffion of affairs the very dregs of the people were thrown up into power, and all was anarchy, flaughter and oppreffion. From the Reftoration to the Revolution we contemplate a period full of trouble, and, for the most part, ftained with the deepest difgrace; a penfioned monarch, an abandoned court, and a licentious people: The abdication, or, more properly, the expulfion of a royal bigot, fet the conftitution upon it's bottom, but it left the minds of men in a ferment that could not speedily fubfide; antient loyalty and high monarchical principles were not to be filenced at once by the peremptory fiat of an act of parliament; men ftill harboured them in their hearts, and popery, three times expelled, was ftill upon the watch, and secretly whetting her weapons for a fourth attempt. Was this a period of focial happinefs?-The fucceffion of the house of Hanover ftill left a pretender to the throne; and though the character of the new fovereign had every requifite of temper and judgment for conciliating his government, yet the old leaven was not exhaufted, fresh revolutions

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were attempted and the nation felt a painful repetition of it's former forrows.

So far therefore as the happiness of society depends upon the fecure establishment of the conftitution, the juft administration of the laws, the ftrict and correct afcertainment of the fubjects rights, and those facred and inviolable privileges as to perfon and property, which every man amongst us can now define, and no man living dares to difpute, fo far we must acknowledge that the times we live in are happier times, than ever fell to the lot of our ancestors, and if we complain of them, it must be on account of fomething, which has not yet come under our review; we will therefore proceed to the next point, and take the present state of religion into our confideration.

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Religious feuds are so terrible in their confequences, and the peace of this kingdom has been fo often deftroyed by the furiousness of zealots and enthusiasts, struggling for church-establishment, and perfecuting in their turns the fallen party without mercy, that the tranquillity we now enjoy, (greater as I believe than in any time paft, but certainly as great) is of itself fufficient to put the modern murmurer to filence. To fubftantiate my affertion, let me refer to the rifing fpirit of toleration; wherever that bleffed fpirit prevails,

prevails, it prevails for the honour of man's nature, for the enlargement of his heart, and for the augmentation of his focial happiness. Whilft we were contending for our own rights, felf-defence compelled us to keep off the encroachments of others, that were hostile to those rights; but these being firmly established, we are no longer warranted to hang the fword of the law over the head of religion, and oppress our seceding fellow-fubjects. Is there any just reason to complain of our established clergy in their collective character? If they do not ftun us with controverfies, it is because they understand the fpirit of their religion better than to engage in them: The publications of the pulpit are still numerous, and if they have dropt their high inflammatory tone, it is to the honour of Chriftianity that they have so done, and taken up a milder, meeker language in it's ftead. As for the practice of religion, it is not in my present argument to speak of that; my business is only to appeal to it as an establishment, effential to the fupport and happiness of fociety; and when we reflect how often in times paft it has been made an engine for fubverting that tranquillity and good order in the ftate, which it now peaceably upholds, I think it will be clear to every eandid man that this cannot be one of the caufes

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of complaint and murmur against the present times.

The Manners of the age we live in is the next point I am to review; and if I am to bring this into any decent compass, I must reject many things out of the account, that would make for my argument, and speak very briefly upon all others.

To compare the manners of one age with those of another we must begin by calling to remembrance the changes that may have been made in our own time, (if we have lived long enough to be witnesses of any) or we must take them upon tradition, or guess at them by the writings of those who defcribe them: The comic poets are in general good describers of the living manners, and of all dramatic painters in this clafs Ben Jonfon is decidedly the best. In the mirror of the stage we have the reflection of the times through all their changes from the reign of Elizabeth to that of Anne, with an

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exception to the days of Oliver, of which interval if there was no other delineation of the reigning manners, than what we find in the annals of Whitelocke and Clarendon, we fhould be at no lofs to form our judgment of them. I ftopt at the age of queen Anne, because it was then that Sir Richard Steele and Mr. Addifon

began

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