t natural religion must be always alike plain and
perspicuous, 'against this convenient opinion the only objection was
that it contradicted the total experience of the human race.']

[Footnote 183: Monk's _Life of Bentley_, vol. i. See also Berkeley's
_Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher_, 107.]

[Footnote 184: Advertisement to the first edition of _The Analogy_, p.
xiv. See also Swift's description of the Duchess of Marlborough, in
_Last four Years of Queen Anne_, bk. i. The first and most prominent
subject of Bishop Butler's 'Durham Charge,' is 'the general decay of
religion,' 'which,' he says, 'is now observed by everyone, and has been
for some time the complaint of all serious persons' (written in 1751).
The Bishop then instructs his clergy at length how this sad fact is to
be dealt with; in fact this, directly or indirectly, is the topic of the
whole Charge.]

[Footnote 185: He wrote to Courayer in 1726,--'No care is wanting in our
clergy to defend the Christian Faith against all assaults, and I believe
no age or nation has produced more or better writings, &c.... This is
all we can do. Iniquity in practice, God knows, abounds,' &c.]

[Footnote 186: Watson's _Life of Warburton_, p. 293.]

[Footnote 187: _Guardian_, No. 3.]

[Footnote 188: _Guardian_, No. 88.]

[Footnote 189: _Examiner_, xxxix. See also Charles Leslie's _Theological
Works_, vol. ii. 533.]

[Footnote 190: _Tatler_, No. 108.]

[Footnote 191: _Tatler_, No. 137.]

[Footnote 192: See _Amelia_, bk. i. ch. iii. &c.]

[Footnote 193: Dedication of first three books of the _Divine Legation_.
See also Pattison's Essay in _Essays and Reviews_.]

[Footnote 194: Farrar's _Bampton Lectures_, 'History of Free Thought.']

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV.

LATITUDINARIAN CHURCHMANSHIP.

(1) CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON'S THEOLOGY.

'Latitudinarian' is not so neutral a term as could be desired. It
conveys an implication of reproach and suspicion, by no means ungrounded
in some instances, but very inappropriate when used of men who must
count among the most distinguished ornaments of the English Church. But
no better title suggests itself. The eminent prelates who were raised to
the bench in King William III.'s time can no longer, without ambiguity,
be called 'Low Churchmen,' because the Evangelicals who succeeded to
the name belong to a wholly different school of thought from the Low
Churchmen of an