of themselves all Errors, Interpolations and Miftakes; or to do what is much more ridiculous, that is, wholly throw themselves, and their Salvation in moft Countries, upon a Confederacy of Men, who have an Intereft to deceive and opprefs them, and ever did fo when they had an Opportunity; who have been always at Variance with one another, and with themselves; and have agreed in nothing but the misleading of those who trufted them! And yet one of these must be the unhappy Circumftance of the greatest Part of Mankind, if what I have faid before be not true; which we may be fure the Divine Goodness cannot permit.

NOTHING is more evident from History, than that most, if not all, the Improvements and Reformations of Religion have been made, not only without, but in Oppofition to these Men. There have been near a Million of them kept in conftant Pay for the beft Part of Seventeen hundred Years, to teach the World by their Precepts, and reform it by their Example; and yet I am perfuaded, they will not pretend, that Religion is plainer, the Scriptures better understood, or that Mankind are more wife or virtuous for all their Inftructions. So little have we been benefited by their Labours, and for all the Money they have received! I wish I could not fay, that the World has gradually decreased in Piety and Virtue, as thefe its Teachers have advanced in Riches and Power. It is owned by the best of themselves.

IT is the fartheft from my Thoughts, by any thing I have before faid, to undervalue their true Office, much less to make it useless. I fincerely think it abfolutely neceffary to the Peace and Happiness of Society. The Roman Confuls had an VOL. I. Officer

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Officer attending their Triumphal Chariots, whofe Business it was to cry out Memento mori.

I WOULD have these too answer the fame End of their Inftitution; to prefs the Reading of the Scripture upon their Hearers; to fhew its Excellency and Advantages; to inculcate the plain Precepts of Faith and Morality contained in it; and to demonftrate the Goodness of God to Men by proving, that he has laid down to us in plain Words, every Duty which he requires of us, either to himself, our Neighbour, or ourselves. But let them not diftract inftead of inftructing, and confound ignorant People with Metaphyfical Subtilties, which the Wifeft cannot comprehend. Let them not strain ridiculous and felfifh Confequences from obfcure Parts of Scripture, and make the Almighty mean what he never faid. Let them give us God's Will in God's Words.

ANOTHER End of their Office, is to execute thofe Duties of our moft Holy Religion, which the Word of God has left at large for every one to do, but which indeed are neceflary to be performed by fingle Perfons in the several Churches or Societies of Chriftians; fuch as Reading the Scriptures, and public Prayers, aloud to the Congre gation, and Adminiftring the Sacraments: What by the Gofpel Liberty is the Right of every one, (as fhall be unanfwerably made out hereafter) is by the Confent of voluntary and national Churches become the Duty and Bufinefs of particular Perfons, who are fet afide and paid for that Purpofe.

IN what I have before faid, I have the Concurrence of the best and wifeft of our own Clergy, who acknowledge and contend, that we are not to take the Almighty's Meaning at Second-hand, nor receive

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receive that for his Will, which we ourselves do not find to be fo; but that we are to inquire before we believe, and to be convinced before we affent; every Affertion or Propofition, before it is examined, being alike to the Understanding, as every Colour is to the Blind. They own, that our Judgment ought to be at no Man's Service, nor our Minds controuled in religious Matters, but by God alone; for as no Man's Soul can be faved by Proxy, fo no Man ought to exercise his Faith by Proxy.

G.

NUMBER V.

Wednesday, February 17. 1720.

The Unfitness of the Clergy to Teach Others.

S in my laft Paper, I hope, I have fully

A fhewn, that Clergymen have no Right to

interpret the Scriptures for other People; fo I fhall endeavour in this, to prove that they are, for the generality, the least qualified to do fo, of any Set or Society of Men, in their prefent State of Learning and Virtue. This I do with a fincere Defign to serve them, as well as the Laity; hoping, that E 2 when

when they fee from what Source the Neglect and Contempt, which they fo much complain of, proceed, they will join heartily in their own Reformation, in answering the Ends of their Inftitution, and in being hereafter as useful to their Country, as many of them have been formerly mifchievous.

USE makes every Pofture familiar to the Body, and every Opinion to the Mind. We are told, that the Brahmans, in India, do, by long Habit, fo diftort their Limbs, that they grow in the Situation which they are put in. Every Day's Experience proves, that we affimilate with the Company we keep, as well in our Sentiments, as in the Air and Mien of our Bodies. Not only different Nations, but often Sects, Profeffions, and Trades, are to be known by their Phiz and Behaviour. A Sailor, or a Taylor, (to fay nothing of their Betters) may be found out, however they disguise themselves.

NOTHING but keeping the best Company can give a free and eafy Carriage; and an open and generous Converfation alone can difengage our Minds from the ftrong Impreffions of our early Education. The Habit of thinking freely, and of expreffing freely thofe Thoughts on all Occafions, enables us to judge well of Men and Things. Our Minds are polifhed by Collifion, and a liberal Converfation not only ftarts all Difficulties, but folves them, if they are to be folved.

ALMIGHTY God gives us Faculties to ufe them; and it is Ingratitude, as well as Folly, to return the Gift upon his Hands. Truth can never fuffer by an impartial Examination, but on the contrary will receive Strength and Advantage from

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it.

it. It is Error and Imposture alone, which dread a fair Inquiry, as being confcious of their own Weakness.

I think I may therefore fafely affirm, that whatever Body or Society of Men are most restrained by themselves or others, from Reasoning freely on every Subject, and efpecially on the most important of all, are the leaft qualified to be the Guides and Directors of Mankind,

I will now examine how far this is the Circumftance of the Clergy in moft Countries. They are no fooner discharged from the Nurfe and the Mother, but they are delivered over to Spiritual Pedagogues, who have feldom the Capacity, and never the Honefty and Courage, to venture at a Free Thought themselves, and must confequently be improper Channels to convey any to their Pupils.

FROM thence they are fent to the Universities, (very commonly upon Charity) where they are ham-ftringed and manacled with early Oaths and Subfcriptions, and obliged to swear to Notions before they know what they are. Their Business afterwards is not to find out what is Truth, but to defend the received Syftem, and to maintain thofe Doctrines which are to maintain Them. Not only their prefent Revenues and Subfiftence, but all their Expectations are annexed to certain Opinions, establifhed, for the most part, by Popes and Synods, in corrupt and ignorant Ages; and even then often carried by Faction and Bribery in Concert with the Defigns and Intrigues of Statesmen; but become fanctified by Time, and now to be received without Inquiry.

No one can fairly examine what is Truth, who has an Intereft on either Side of the Queftion. We are bribed by our Inclinations, in fpite of the

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beft