Page:Poetical Works of the Right Hon. Geo. Granville.djvu/25

Rh 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 licenſe 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 fell and betray him. This crime, however palliated and defended 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 out 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 indubitable 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