After that the _Bishop_ of _London_ had publish'd his _Pastoral Letter_, and it was reported that the _Bishop_ of St. _David's_ was preparing a strenuous Vindication of the _litteral_ Story of _Jesus_'s Miracles, I concluded that the Prosecution would immediately be dropp'd, and that the Clergy were betaking themselves to that Christian, Rational, and Philosophical Course of Confutation, and would no longer make use of Persecution, which is the Armour of hot, furious, and ignorant Bigots. And there is one Passage in the _Bishop_'s _Pastoral Letter_, which I interpreted as a Grant of full Liberty; but, whether I am apt to mistake the Sense of the Fathers of the _Primitive_ Church or not, I find I did misconstrue the Words of a Father of our _English_ Church, and turn'd them to another and better Purpose than he aim'd at. His Words are these[340] "And as to the _blasphemous manner_, in which a late Writer has taken the Liberty to treat our Saviour's Miracles, and the Author of them; tho' I am far from contending, that the Grounds of the Christian Religion, and the Doctrines of it, may not be discuss'd at all Times in a calm, decent, and serious Way (on the contrary, I am sure that the more fully they are discuss'd, the more firmly they will stand) yet I cannot but think it the Duty of the Civil Magistrate, at all Times, to take Care that Religion be not treated in a _ludicrous_ or _reproachful_ Manner, and effectually to discourage such Books and Writings as strike equally at the Foundation of all Religion, _&c._" What the _Bishop_ of _L._ here says, of his _thinking it the Duty of the Civil Magistrate at all Times, to take Care that Religion be not treated in a ludicrous manner_, I understood as an Excuse for what he had done in stirring up the Civil Magistrate to a Prosecution of me; and that now, like a Philosopher, he was for letting Truth and Religion to take its Course, and for leaving it to a free Discussion, whether in a _ludicrous_ or in a _calm_, _decent_ or _serious_ Way. But I confess, I have mistaken the _Bishop_'s Words, finding by Experience, that (for all the natural Import of his Expression, that Liberty should be used to discuss the Grounds of Religion in a _serious_ Manner) he'll no more suffer it, if he can help it, to be contested in a _serious_, than in a _ludicrous_ Way; wherefore else did he move for the Prosecution of a late _London Journal_, which was all _calm_, _decent_, and _serious_ Argument. And the Bishop of St. _David's_ his furious _Dedication_ now, confirms me in this Opinion, that our _Clergy_ (for all their preaching up Liberty with as much Force and Strength of Reason as any Men, and for all their Invitations to _Infidels_, to say and print their worst against Christianity) will by no means, if they can hinder it, suffer any Attacks to be made upon their Religion, nor cease their Importunities and Solicitations of the Civil Magistrate to Persecution. Blessed be God, the _Bishops_ are not my _Judges_ as well as my _Accusers_, or I know, what would become of me.