Select passages from the diary and letters of the late John Blackader, Esq.

1 7 1 2.] col. blackader's papers, i 65
a previous appointment ; and, having
made my demiilion, I look upon my-
felf as out of the army. 1 obferve the
kind dealing of Providence with me, that
twojiays hence, (the 25th) is the day
which by Act of Parliament I would
have loft my poft if I had gone to a Pref-
byterian meeting * ; now, by the good-
nefs of God, I am delivered out of this
fnare, for this law does not touch me, ha-
ving no poft. I knew not this, nor did I
fuipedt. it laft fummer when I entered in-
to the agreement; but God, who leads
the blind by the way they know not, was
* This was the bill for preventing occajional con-
formity, the reftraints of which were far more extenfive
than its title feems to imply. After having been moved
and rejected three times in former years, and nofteps
taken to renew the motion for feven years, it was car-
ried through in this feffion of Parliament. By this
law. all perfons having places of truft or profit under
government forfeited thefe, who ihouid be prefent at
any meeting for religious worfhip confifting of more
than ten perfons. befides the family, where the Boole
of Common Prayer was not ufed. The law took ef-
fect on the 25th of this month, and was carried
without any oppofition from thofe who had hitherto
in Parliament divided againft it.