the sufferings of the Greek Church in Alexandria. Further the Patriarch's statement is attested by the British Consuls at Cairo, and Tripoli, as well as the Consul for the Netherlands at Tunis. The results of this application to the British public I cannot state.[1]
The preceding correspondence concerning the projected union is a sufficient refutation of the malignant charge of Popery, so frequently alleged against the Nonjurors. Some of them held peculiar opinions, on what were termed the Usages; but even this section was no more inclined towards Rome, than the parties, by whom the charge has been alleged. If indeed actions are to be regarded as the criterion of principles, then the Dissenters of the period of the Revolution for supporting King James, and those of the present day for uniting with Romanists, are much more obnoxious to the charge than the Nonjurors, who ever acted consistently with their principles, in opposition both to Popery and Dissent. The parties, who make this charge, who are generally Dissenters, or Churchmen of lax principles, to whom the Church and Dissent are equally agreeable, should remember the period of the Revolution, when, but for the exertions of many, who became Nonjurors, Popery must have prevailed in England. Undoubtedly some of the Nonjurors were uncharitable in speaking of the Church of England: but they are not, on that account, by way of retaliation, to be charged with errors, of which they were innocent. While we la-
- ↑ The full Title of the Pamphlet is as follows. "Lachrymæ et Suspiria Ecclesiæ Græcæ: or the Distressed State of the Greek Church. Humbly represented in a Letter to Her late Majesty, Queen Anne, from the Patriarch of Alexandria: by the hands of Arsenius, Archbishop of Thebais, now residing in London." London. Printed in the year, 1715.
