privy council. The year following he was created baron Lanſdowne of Biddeford in Devonſhire.[1]
In 1719 he made a ſpeech in the houſe of lords againſt the practice of occaſional conformity, which is printed among his works, and among other things, he ſays this.
‘I always underſtood the toleration to be meant as an indulgence to tender conſciences, not a licence for hardened ones; and that the act to prevent occaſional conformity was deſigned only to correct a particular crime of particular men, in which no ſect of diſſenters was included, but theſe followers of Judas, which came to the Lord’s-Supper, from no other end but to ſell, and betray him. This crime however palliated and deſcended, by ſo many right reverend fathers in the church, is no leſs than making the God of truth, as it were in perſon ſubſervient to acts of hypocriſy; no leſs than ſacrificing the myſtical Blood and Body of our Saviour to worldly and ſiniſter purpoſes, an impiety of the higheſt nature! which in juſtice called for protection, and in charity for prevention. The bare receiving the holy Euchariſt, could never be intended ſimply as a qualification for an office, but as an open declaration, an undubitable proof of being, and remaining a ſincere member of the church. Whoever preſumes to receive it with any other view profanes it, and may be ſaid to ſeek his promotion in this world, by eating and drinking his own damnation in the next.’
This accompliſhed nobleman died in February, Anno 1735. By his lady, Mary, widow of Thomas
- ↑ Upon the acceſſion of King George the Iſt., the lord Lanſdowne was ſeized, and impriſoned in the Tower, upon an impeachment of high treaſon; but was ſoon after honourably discharged, without being brought to a trial.
