It must, however, be admitted that any _insincerity_ in the matter of Subscription, would deservedly expose us to the contempt of our opponents.—But a generous mind would shrink instinctively from inferring insincerity from any thing _approaching only to its appearance_. _Decipimur specie_ ought to hold with respect to _evil_ not less than _good_. Still, alas! to the jaundiced eye every object presents itself in colours not its own. And I fear that the opinion which his Lordship would seem to entertain of the actuating spirit of our opponents, is but too well founded, and amply justifies his apprehension that _they_ would not be slow to avail themselves of the _appearance_, caring little to dissipate the “mentis gratissimus error,” by ascertaining themselves of the non-existence of the _reality_. That accomplished, but embittered infidel, the historian Gibbon, did not scruple to declare that the clergy, one and all of them, made their Subscription either “with a sigh or a smile;” but I trust that the clergy, as a body, can afford to leave such opponents in the unmolested possession of their imaginary vantage ground. Until _Mordecai_ was removed from his seat at the gate, the soul of _Haman_ could not be quieted within him—nor will the souls of our opponents, until the Church is brought down to a level with their own sects. “_If it_ (_Subscription_) _is to be understood in the literal_, _most strict_, _and most stringent sense_, _it would create difficulties_, _which must weigh heavily upon scrupulous and tender consciences_.” But even supposing this—where there is no compulsion, there no violence can be done to the conscience, and no one is compelled to “enter the church,” and in using the expression, I confess I cannot perceive with the _Messrs. Hull_, that it is redolent “of a very popish error,” it certainly means, as they observe, “taking orders;” and I should think that the last persons likely to present themselves to a Bishop for that purpose, would be those whose consciences were already overborne by the pressure of their scruples. “Tenderness of conscience,” says _Bishop Jeremy Taylor_, “is an equivocal term, and does not always signify in a good sense.” {19} I am far from meaning to impeach the sincerity of the petitioners, but if his Lordship applied the term in any other than a _good sense_, he might seem to have paid them but an equivocal compliment, and if he used it in a good sense with respect to _them_, the great body of the clergy who have subscribed, and felt no pang, might suspect his Lordship of meaning to imply that they were gifted with consciences of a somewhat tougher texture than is altogether to be envied. Some have chosen to draw this inference; I will not however believe that they have done his Lordship’s deliberate sentiments justice in so doing.