But when I cast my eye over the list of your officers, and subscribers, (over which your Lordship’s eye has undoubtedly passed,) I am really in doubt, whether your Lordship be in jest or earnest, when you recommend the institution to the attention of a Clergyman of the Church of England; and, I wonder much, what arguments your Lordship can use, to press it home. In this list, I must acknowledge, I see many respectable names, with which I should be happy to place mine. But I likewise see a very large proportion of others, with which, as an honest man, I can have nothing to do; I see many names of persons, whose objects and pursuits have been diametrically the opposite of mine: what I build, they pull down: what I teach, they mock, and endeavour to render ineffectual. The sacred cause, which as a Clergyman of the Church of England, I have sworn to serve and support, (and which, with the best talents I have, I will support, as long as I have my life,) they hold up to scorn, and abuse with hard names and jeers. They vilify my character, as a servant of the Most Highest, and set me forth to the world, as a dishonest man. Now were I, my Lord, allured by your Lordship’s invitation, and tempted by the sound of what you call the “liberal basis of your establishment;” (the sense of which I have not yet apprehended:) should I be induced, I say, to venture myself into the company of men, of whom I have hitherto always been horribly afraid, being frightened at the idea of having the National Establishment blown up, as one of them said, clergy and all: can your Lordship afford me protection and safety? Can your Lordship shew me, that our days are so evangelical, that the lamb may now dwell with the wolf in safety? I see your Lordship is ready kindly to allay my fears; and to demand, if persons associating for the _simple_ and _pure_ purpose of disseminating the scriptures, ought to be suspected of such views and projects? My Lord, since I have been a shepherd, I have seen so many wolves, and have undergone such terrors for my poor sheep, that you must have the charity to pity my weakness, and excuse my unconquerable fears. Those who are old in the business, have a right at least to be attended to, in matters which concern their experience. Wolves, my Lord, our great Master has warned us, sometimes put on sheep’s clothing; and we find, I assure you, much harder work with these crafty beasts, than with those, which, without disguise, prowl about in their proper character. But have I not too good reason to be afraid of those who openly, and fairly _avow_, that their object is to eat us up, both sheep and shepherd too? In plain terms, if your Lordship can demonstrate to us, that those persons with whom you invite me to associate, under pretence of doing God service, have at any time really revoked their hostility to the church and ministry, which they have so frequently, and so fully avowed; shew us the time when, and the place where, they have