Mr. Chandler had a strong conviction of the pernicious nature, and dangerous tendency, of the Romish religion, and was desirous of exposing the persecuting spirit by which that church has been so much characterised: and it was with this view that he published, in 1731, in two volumes, 4to., a translation of “The history of the inquisition, by Philip à Limborch:” to which he prefixed, “A large introduction, concerning the rise and progress of persecution, and the real and pretended causes of it.” In this introduction Mr. Chandler says, “I will not deny, but that the appointing persons, whose peculiar office it should be to minister in the external services of public and social worship, is, when under proper regulations, of advantage to the decency and order of divine service. But then I think it of the most pernicious consequence to the liberties of mankind, and absolutely inconsistent with the true prosperity of a nation, as well as with the interest and success of rational religion, to suffer such ministers to become the directors-general of the consciences and faith of others, or publicly to assume, and exercise such a power, as shall oblige others to submit to their determinations, without being convinced of their being wise and reasonable, and never to dispute their spiritual decrees. The very claim of such a power is the highest insolence, and an affront to the common sense and reason of mankind; and wherever it is usurped and allowed, the most abject slavery both of soul and body is almost the unavoidable consequence. For by such a submission to spiritual power, the mind and conscience is actually enslaved; and by being thus rendered passive to the priest, men are naturally prepared for a servile subjection to the prince, and for becoming slaves to the most arbitrary and tyrannical government. And I believe it hath been generally found true by experience, that the same persons who have asserted their own power over others, in matters of religion and conscience, have also asserted the absolute power of the civil magistrate, and been the avowed patrons of those admirable doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance for the subject.” At the close of this piece our author observes, that the use of the view which he had given of the rise and progress of persecution, was, “to teach men to adhere close to the doctrines and words of Christ and his apostles, to argue for the doctrines of the gospel with meekness and charity, to introduce no new terms of salvation and Christian communion, not to trouble the Christian church with metaphysical subtilties and abstruse questions, that minister to quarrelling and strife, not to pronounce censures, judgments, and anathemas, upon such as may differ from us in speculative truths, not to exclude men from the rights of civil society, nor lay them under any negative or positive discouragements for conscience sake, or for their different usages and rites in the externals of Christian worship; but to