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Junius may, poffibly, in the twinkling of an eye, commence the panegyrift of an English Cromwell, or of a Scotch Macbeth.

This is the Mr. Wefley, who, not long ago, had the modesty to tell the world that his principles have been the fame, "for eight and twenty years." Inftead of principles, in the plural; he should have faid, principle, in the fingular. For, I grant, there is a principle, by which he has uniformly abode; viz. to change and fhift about, like the minutehand of a clock. Nor does he bid fair, ever to stand at a point, till all the vital weights are quite run down, and the pendulum ceases to play.

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Little more than two centuries ago, a famous temporifing priest, who had turned with every tide; who was an half Proteftant in the clofe of Henry VIII's reign, an whole Proteftant in the reign of Edward VI. a good Catholic in the reign of Mary, and a Proteftant again in the reign of Elizabeth returned the following anfwer to a friend, who charged him with religious and political unfteadinefs, and with having either no confcience at all, or at least a very convenient confcience, made of stretching leather, equally capable of fhrinking and dilating, as whim or interest might require.

"You are much mistaken," said the pious divine : "I am by no means that changeable perfon, you take me for. No man in the world was ever more steady to his principle, or acted a more confiftent part. When I was first prefented to the vicarage of Bray, I refolved to hold it as long as I breathed. And I have acted accordingly. Vicar of Bray I was. Vicar of Bray I am. And vicar of Bray I will be, to the

end of the chapter."

By way of winding up the whole matter, I will take my present leave of Mr. Wefley, with fubmitting to the reader a very notable fpecimen of father John's wretched, but (in him) not aftonishing, inconfiftency.

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"No man can difpofe of another's life, but by his own confent. I add, no, nor with his confent. For no man has a right to difpofe of his own life. Now, it is an indifputable truth, nihil dat quod non habet: none gives what he has not. plainly follows, that no man can give, to another, a right, which he never had himself, viz. power of the fword, any fuch power as implies a right to take away life." Welley's Thoughts on the Origin of Power, · P. 11. printed A. D. 1772.

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How delightfully do thofe two oppofite paragraphs co-alefce and hang together! But what are contradictions, to John Wefley? I congratulate adminiftration, on their acquifition of fo wife, fo knowing, fo honeft, fo uniform, fo dif-interested, so steady and fo respectable a politician. A politician, who, in fome companies, affirms, that his fudden approbation of government measures was occafioned by his perufal of Dr. Johnfon's Taxation no Tyranny:' and, without a blufh, avers, in other companies, that his faid political converfion was brought about by virtue of a long converfation with two members of parliament. Pity it is, that great truth-tellers, like great wits, fhould be fo famous for fhort memories!

LONDON, Oct. 19, 1775.

POST SCRIPT.

POSTSCRIPT.

Should Dr. Johnson's echo be asked to preach a charity fermon, larded with tory politics, in Bethnal Green Church; we fhall have the title of a good old fong realized afresh: and the charity girls may squeak a stanza, to the tune of, The blind Beggar of Bethnal Green.

PARTICULARS

PARTICULAR S

OF

POPE JO A N.
JOAN.

IT has been confidently afferted, by fome modern

members of the Romish communion, that the ftory, concerning pope Joan, is a mere fiction, invented by Proteftants to: blacken the infallible Church. In oppofition to which infinuation, I here infert the following extract, copied, verbatim, by my own hand, from that fcarce and curious old book, entitled, The Nuremburgh Chronicle: which was printed at Nuremburgh, in the year of our Lord 1493; in a Popith city, by Popish printers, and compiled by Popifh hands, no lefs than four and twenty years before the firft dawn of the Reformation which Luther afterwards began.

The reader will find the following fuccinct hiftory of this famous female pope in the above work, p. 169, b.

66

Johannes Anglicus (et ut ferunt), ex mogunciaco ortus, malis artibus pontificatum adeptus; mentitus enim fexum, cùm femina effet. Adolefcens admodùm, Athenas cum viro docto amatore proficifcitur: ibique, præceptores bonarum artium audiendo, tantum profecit, ut, Romam veniens, paucos admodùm etiam in facris literis pares haberet, nedum fuperiores. Legendo autem & difputando doctè & acutè, tantum benevolentie & auctoritatis fibi comparavit, ut, mortuo Leone, in ejus locum (ut Martinus ait), omnium confenfu, pontifex crearetur. Verùm poftea à familiari compreffa, cùm aliquandiu occultè ventrem tuliffet; tandem, cum ad Lateranenfem bafilicam proficifceretur, intra theatrum (quod Colofeum vocant) a Neronis collofo & fanctum Clementem, doloribus circumventa, peperit. Eoque loci mortua, pontificatus fui anno fecundo, menfe uno, diebus

quatuor,

quatuor, fine ullo honore fepelitur. Sunt qui hæc duo fcribant: pontificem ipfum, quum ad Lateranenfem bafilicam proficifcitur, deteftandi facinoris caufâ, & viam illam confultò declinare; &, ejufdem vitandi erroris caufa, dum primò in jede Petri collocatur, ad eam rem perforata, genitalia ab ultimo diacono obtrectari."

Tranflation of the above.

"John of English defcent, but faid to have been born at Mentz, obtained the Popedom by finifter arts: for, fhe palmed herself upon the world as a man, when, in reality, fhe was a woman. In her youth, fhe accompanied a learned lover of her's, to Athens: and there, by attending the lectures of the best literary profeffors, fhe made fo great a progrefs in erudition, that, on her arrival in Rome, the had few equals, and no fuperiors, in all kinds of theological knowledge. By her learned lectures, and by her mafterly difputations, he acquired fo much esteem and authority, that, on the death of Leo, fhe was, by univerfal confent (as Martinus affirms), created pope.

"Some time after her elevation to the pontifical dignity, she became criminally familiar with one of her domeftics; and pregnancy was the confequence. She took care, by every precaution, to conceal this circumftance, as long as poffible: until, at laft, as fhe was walking [in public proceffion] to the Lateran Church [in Rome], fhe was fuddenly feized with labour-pains, and brought forth her infant, in that part of the street which lies between the Theatre and the Church of St. Clement. She died on the fpot; having held the Popedom two years, one month, and four days.

"Some writers affirm, that, to this very day, whenever the pope walks in proceffion to the Lateran Church, he conftantly goes thither by another way, to avoid reviving the memory of the above-mentioned deteftable event; and that, in order to pre

vent

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