kind; what can contribute more to the preserving the Peace of Civil Society, than to fet Men right in these Inquiries, to remove these Illufions, detect thofe Impostures, and correct thofe Errors that have fo long been the Caufes of fo much Diffention and Confufion in the World. And this (I am bold to fay) is an Honour referved for our Times, and for our Family, which we claim to ourselves against all Competitors.

Mistake me not, my Lord, we do not pretend to oppofe Religion in general; that would be a fruitless Attempt. The World is fo invincibly prejudiced in Favour of an old Superstition, that much the Majority will ftill profefs and defend it in fome fhape or other, Our Business, therefore, is to fhew the good People of Britain, that provided they profefs fome Sort of Religion, the particular Sort or Kind is a Matter of very little or no Confequence, not worth contending about to the Disturbance of Civil Society, or the Prejudice of our own Interest. They that will have a Maypole, fhall have a May-pole; and they that will not, may let it alone.

A Religion (as I said before) of fome Sort or other has fo long been the Fashion, that I imagine it cannot easily be rooted out, but will still continue to have a ftrange Influence, upon the Belief at least, if not the Practice, of the filly fuperftitious Vulgar, though People of Senfe and Figure fhould all agree to disbelieve it; but then we have contrived to take off the Edge, to weaken the Influence, to abate the Terrors, and prevent the ill Effects of it, by representing it in its true Light as a Matter of mere Indifference or Convenience, of which a Man may take just as much as he pleases, and leave the reft; and so many pro

fefs

fefs and practise so much as he shall think fit and convenient for his temporal Interest, and leave the rest of the World at liberty to do the same. And if it fhould happen that the Government, under which he lives, fhould think it worth their while to interpofe in an Affair of fo little Confequence, it would be a Point of Prudence and Duty, as well as Intereft and good Manners, to profess fuch a Creed, and no other, as they fhall think fit to establish; and to recommend or oppofe, condemn or practife, whatever they fhall think fit to condemn or approve under the Names of Vice and Virtue, Truth and Error; which, let me tell your Lordship, will be an unfpeakable Eafe to weak Heads, and tender Confciences, which, I humbly prefume, are sometimes found in Courts, as well as other Places.

Now, as nothing has contributed more to the Support of this religious Phrenzy, than an Opinion of its being founded on a Revelation from Heaven, which has been the conftant Pretence of every Sort of Religion that ever appeared in the World; fo we affure ourfelves nothing can more effectually weaken its Authority, than to deftroy or weaken that Pretence, by fhewing the weak and inconclufive Reasonings, the impoffible Facts, the unintelligible Doctrines, as they appear to us, and the various Readings in the feveral Copies of that Book, on which we Chriftians (as a Man may fay) pretend to found our Religion.-This is a Point that we have laboured with good Succefs. And as the Religion of Nature, which we have fubftituted in its room, is a Scheme much more palatable to Flesh and Blood, as it takes off those unnatural Reftraints which the vulgar Notions of Religion have imposed

C 4

imposed upon merry Hearts and fanguine Constitutions, and leaves Men at full liberty to follow their own natural Inclinations, no wonder that we make numberless Converts among the chearful, fenfible, brilliant Part of Mankind; and, by their Influence and Example, among all Ranks and Orders of their Inferiors. To all which I might add, that one of our Family, fome Years ago, published a very useful and learned Treatife; I have forgot the Title, but the Defign of it was, to demonftrate the Proportion in which the Evidence and Credibility of all Hiftories and Traditions decreases with the Length of their Continuance, fo as at laft to be intirely loft.-The Application is easy, the Book was well received, and the Author well rewarded; being, for that and fome other good Services to Religion and Learning, promoted to a Dignity which had not been filled with one of our Family for many Generations.

Yet, in spite of our united Endeavours and great Succefs, fo ftrong is the Force of religious Prejudice, there are Numbers who still pertinaciously adhere to the old hum-drum Systems of Faith and Manners ; we have, therefore, with good Succefs, employed fome of our ableft Heads and beft Pens, to pull off the mysterious Drefs, to reduce its affected Sublimities, bold Hyperboles, and ftrong Metaphors to the fober Standard of plain Reason, common Senfe, and common Forms and Rules of Speaking upon the like Occafions. Every body knows what terrible Difputes and Contentions have reigned for many Ages about what we call the Chriftian Sacraments. How many Volumes have been written, Battles fought, and Lives loft, to decide a Question concerning the Baptifm of Infants in one Sacrament, and the Mode

of

of the Divine Prefence in the other? How many hard Words, fuch as Tranfubftantiation, Confubftantiation, &c. have been coined to explain a Doctrine which both Sides, in their turn, have owned to be inexplicable? To put an End to these fatal Disputes, and to deliver thinking Men from the Perplexities on both Sides of thefe Queftions, we declare freely to those who are inclined to receive it, that they are Questions of no Moment, a mere Strife of Words, a Contention about nothing, in which neither our Duty nor Happiness are any way concerned. But if any Scruples. yet remain among the Ignorant and Superftitious, as to the Neceffity of the Thing itself, as an Article of Church Communion, we farther declare, that the first, that of Baptism, (if it should be thought neceffary) may be administered at any Age, or by any Perfon, as well by the Midwife or the Nurse, as by the Rector or the Curate.-And as for the other, we declare that the Difficulties are all of our own making, by turning a plain Matter of Fact into an unintelligible Mystery,

THE PLAIN ACCOUNT is this: We are told in the Bible, that fomething more than 1700 Years ago, there lived, in Judea, a very good Sort of a Man, who fet himself to oppose the Superftition of the Country, and to introduce among them a new System of Religion or moral Virtue; which, confidering the Purity of its Doctrines, and the Greatness of its Rewards, is generally allowed to be the very beft. that ever appeared in the World, excepting fome few unreasonable Severities, and unnatural Prohibitions and Restraints, which People of Senfe and Breeding know how to difpenfe with on proper Occafions; the.

Freedom

Freedom with which he reproved the Vices of all Profeffions and Characters, particularly the Pride and Hypocrify of the Priests, the Scribes, and Pharifees, provoked all their Rage and Indignation against him, infomuch that they were determined to get rid of him at any rate. They first accused him of Blafphemy, for which, by their Law, he ought to die; but, as they had not the Power of Life and Death, they could make nothing of it that way: They then came to a Refolution to murder him; but were afraid of the People, who had a high Efteem and Reverence for him, on Account of his Doctrines, and the many good Works he wrought among them; at laft they prevailed upon the Roman Governor, partly by Threats, and partly by Infinuations of treafonable Practices against the State, to condemn him to die, in spite of his own Conviction, and repeated Profeffions of his Innocence. A little before his Execution he convened his Difciples and Followers, and, in a very fenfible and affecting Speech, confirmed the Doctrines that he had taught them, and left it, as his dying Request, that whenever they met together as a Society, they would never fail to drink to the immortal Memory of their Mafter. Now this is the Short and Long of the whole Matter; this is all there is in it. But to make it a neceffary Duty, or Part of religious Worship; to imagine that there is any Promife in Scripture, annexing a Benefit to the Use of it, especially that of Remiffion of Sins, has this peculiar Abfurdity in it, that it destroys the very Notion of Remembrance, which is the Effence of it; to make it, therefore, the actual Partaking of any Benefits which we were only commanded to remember, is altering the Nature of it, as much as actual partaking ef

--

any