Act of Uniformity which ratifies their peculiar way of worship. If the extemporary prayers of the Presbyterians are current on this side of the Tweed, why should not the Episcopal set forms be likewise received on the other." He then alludes to the objection, that it would inflame the Scots, and asks: "And what if it should? We, who live nearest them, have no astonishing apprehensions of the consequences of any heats that can happen on such an occasion. It would look somewhat oddly, that a moderator of a Northern Presbytery should have the liberty of worshipping God in his own way at Lincoln or Carlisle, and that you and I should be debarred the like indulgence at Edinburgh or Glasgow."[1] The subject was noticed by Swift in the Examiner. "It is somewhat extraordinary," says he, "to see our Whigs and Fanatics keep such a stir about the sacred Act of Toleration, while their brethren will not allow a connivance in so near a neighbourhood: especially if what the gentleman insists on in his letter be true, that nine parts in ten of the nobility and gentry, and two in three of the commons are Episcopal: of which one argument he offereth is the present choice of their representatives in both Houses, though opposed to the utmost by the preachings, threatenings, and anathemas of the Kirk.
- ↑ Nicolson's Epistolary Correspondence, ii. 398, 399. Greenshields remained in prison until liberated by the decision of the House of Lords. Somerville, 469. Somerville remarks, "Though this sentence was agreeable to every principle of liberality and justice, yet it gave great offence to the Clergy and members of the establishment." Ibid. That the English Dissenters agreed with the Presbyterians is clear from their writers. They demanded a toleration for themselves: but denied it to others. Thus says one: "Three famous Incendiaries, Sacheverell in England, Higgins in Ireland, and Greenshields in Scotland, are punished only with preferments." Bennet's Memorial, 398.
