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

LIFE AND PARENTAGE. Ill
eftabliih, and adhere to that lyftem of religion,
and thofe forms of church government which he
afterwards, by the moil violent, and bloody pro-
ceedings, endeavoured to extirpate. Whatever
views perfons may entertain of the nature of
Chrift's kingdom, concerning which, if his own,
teftimonv before Pilate *, illuftrated by the doc-,
trine and practice of his apoftles, be underftood in
its obvious meaning, thefe worthy men were very
greatly mistaken — whatever fentiments we may
ho]d of its difcordance or. agreeablenefs with dio-
cefan and lordly epifcopacy, or of the alliance
between church and (late — indeed, whether men.
be Chriftians or infidelsf, the fanguinary and per-
fidious meafures by which it was attempted, not
merely to eftablifh, but to enforce the conformity
of a whole nation with a hierarchy which they
almoft univerfally detefted, mud excite in every
honeft and humane mind, not under the influence
of bigotry and prejudice, the keeneft indignation
and abhorrence. Mr Blackader was one of
* John xviii. 36.
t The various and enormous opprefftons of his reign
in Scotlaird, (fays a late able hiftorian, impartial where-
ever Chriftianity is not concerned) may be compared
with the tyranny of the worfl Cefars. — A more diffu-
five, and to the people a more unfupportable tyranny,
extended over the community at large. The only
apology for Charles is, that he was not prefent to fu-
penntend or to rettiain his minifters ; to witnel's the
tortures, the groans, and the murders of his lubjecfs ;
to compute the fums wiung from their mifery, or the