for all that, they hold fast to it; and so go on to subscribe and rail."

To such practices as these we owe the present disaffection to the clergy, and most, if not all the calamities and public disturbances which have happened since the Revolution; and yet, lamentable to say, they have prevailed so far among the corrupt part of the clergy, that I wish we could find more, even of those who are called “evangelical,' who dare thoroughly to renounce these impious and anabaptistical errors, as their own canons call them.

Dominion! Dominion! is the loud cry, which, as it has already produced the cruelties and absurdities of popery, is still teeming with, or bringing forth, new monsters. What other issue, indeed, can be expected from so unnatural a union as that of the Christian priesthood with worldly power?

To this we are beholden for all the corruptions and follies brought into religious worship, as well as the ill-shapen and ungainly brats of passive obedience, the divine right of kings and bishops, the uninterrupted succession, the priest's power of the keys-of binding and loosing, remitting and retaining sins-the real presence in the sacrament, the altar, and unbloody sacrifice upon it, the giving of the Holy Ghost, excommunication, the consecration of churches and church-yards, persecution for opinions, the tritheistical cha

rity, and a long train of monkish fooleries, no part of which could ever have entered into the heart of one layman, or clergyman either, if no earthly advantage had been, by them, to be obtained.

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CHAP. XXIV.

A GENERAL IDEA OF PRIESTCRAFT.

I HAVE, in the twenty-first chapter of this work, endeavoured to vindicate the Almighty from the imputation of obscurity, in revealing his will to mankind; and shewn that He is plain, exact, and even circumstantial, when He delivers his precepts to them. I shall now expose the contrary method of weak and corrupt men, by giving a general idea of the principal arts by which the designing priests of all religions have kept their craft and impostures from a discovery, and made the truth, as far as they could, inaccessible to the people.

Every bad action or principle in religion and government, must have some apparent cause assigned for it, calculated to amuse the people, and to conceal the true cause. Mankind, as tame as priests and tyrants have made them, will not be satisfied to be deceived or butchered, without having a reason for it. The pope, who assumes a power to judge for all men, and devotes whole nations to massacre and damnation, and sends

people to heaven or hell in colonies, just as their money or disobedience determines him, acts a very consistent part in tying the keys of both worlds to his girdle, and in styling himself, God's absolute vicar general. These are his reasons; and the Catholic and more orthodox parts of Europe are perfectly contented with them.

In former reigns, when many of our English clergy thought proper to tie us hand and foot, and deliver us over to our kings, as their proper goods and chattels, to be fed or slayed according to their sacred will and pleasure, they told us that it was the ordinance of God, that one man might glut his lust, or his cruelty, with the destruction of millions; and if we kept out of harm's way were assuredly damned. These were their reasons then. Of late, it is true, many of them have changed their doctrine and behaviour. We are, it seems, at present, living in the guilt of rebellion, which is a damnable sin; and so we are to rebel, upon pain of damnation, to free ourselves from the damnation which follows rebellion. These are their reasons now.

we were

Formerly, when certain persons were satisfied to be Protestants, the Church of Rome was the spiritual Babylon, and the scarlet whore, and Sodom; and the pope was anti-Christ, for he sat in the temple of God, and exalted himself above all that is called God. But this was truth, and could not hold long, considering into whose hands

it was fallen; and, therefore, in a little time, when they wished to get into the pope's place, and to do and say as he did, the Church of Rome became all of a sudden a true Church, and an old Church, and our mother Church. In short, the old withered harlot, and mother of whoredoms, grew a great beauty, and her daughter, here in England, resembled her mamma more and more every day she lived, and gave the foregoing reasons for her belief.

From hence it is evident, that though for every imposture some cause must be assigned, yet oftentimes a very indifferent one will serve the turn. The bulk of mankind are dull and credulous; few make any inquiries at all, and fewer make successful ones. It is, however, still best if the cheat stands upon such a foundation, that it cannot be searched nor examined by any human eye.

When Numa Pompilius told the Romans that he conversed familiarly with the nymph Egeria, which of them could pay her a visit, and ask her whether the prince and she were in earnest such very good neighbours ? When Mahomet took such a wide range upon his nag Elborach, and told wonders at his return, there was neither man nor horse in all Arabia that could take the same journey to disprove him; nor did I ever hear that when he was pleased to be thought conversant with the angel Gabriel, the angel signed a certificate that they were unacquainted. The quack, who had found