rts in support of the protestant religion, would
surely have lent a helping hand towards its preservation. The Danes
would not have stood, tamely neutral, and seen the religion they profess
exposed to the rage of such a powerful confederacy. It is not to be
imagined that the Swedes, who have so zealously maintained the purity
of the protestant faith, would now join an association whose aim was the
ruin of that religion. It is not credible that even the Hungarians, who
profess the same faith, and other protestant states of the empire, would
enter so heartily into the interests of those who were bent upon its
destruction; or that the Russians would contribute to the aggrandizement
of the catholic faith and discipline, so opposite to that of the Greek
church, which they espouse. As, therefore, no particular of such a
design was explained, no act of oppression towards any protestant
state or society pointed out, except those that were exercised by the
protestants themselves; and as the court of Vienna repeatedly disavowed
any such design, in the most solemn manner, the unprejudiced part of
mankind will be 'apt to conclude that the cry of religion was used, as
in former times, to arouse, alarm, and inflame; nor did the artifice
prove altogether unsuccessful. Notwithstanding the general lukewarmth
of the age in matters of religion, it produced considerable effect among
the fanatic sectaries that swarm through the kingdom of England. The
leaders of those blind enthusiasts, either actuated by the spirit of
delusion, or desirous of recommending themselves to the protection of
the higher powers, immediately seized the hint, expatiating vehemently
on the danger that impended over God's people; and exerting all their
faculties to impress the belief of a religious war, which never fails
to exasperate and impel the minds of men to such deeds of cruelty and
revenge as must discredit all religion, and even disgrace humanity. The
signal trust and confidence which the parliament of England reposed
in the king, at this juncture, was in nothing more conspicuous than in
leaving to the crown the unlimited application of the sum granted for
augmenting the salaries of the judges. In the reign of king William,
when the act of settlement was passed, the parliament, jealous of the
influence which the crown might acquire over the judges, provided, by
an express clause of that act, that the commissions of the judges should
subsist _quamdiu se bene ge