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faction rooted in mens hearts no deeper than phrafes borrowed from religion, or founded upon no firmer principles? And is our language fo poor, that we cannot find other terms to express them? Are envy, pride, avarice, and ambition, fuch il nomenclators, that they cannot furnish appellations for their owners? Will not Heydukes and Mamalukes, Mandarines and Patfhaws, or any other words formed at pleafure, ferve to distinguish those who are in the miniftry, from others who would be in it if they could? What, for instance, is easier than to vary the form of speech? and, instead of the word church, make it a question in politics, whether the monument be in danger? Because religion was nearest at hand to furnish a few convenient phrafes, is our invention fo barren, we can find no other? Suppose, for argument's fake, that the Tories favoured Margarita, the Whigs Mrs. Tofts, and the Trimmers Valentini; would not Margaritans, Toftians, and Valentinians, be very tolerable marks of diftinction? The Prafini and Veniti, two moft virulent factions in Italy, began (if I remember right) by a diftinction of colours in ribbands: and we might contend, with as good a grace, about the dignity of the blue and the green; which would ferve as properly to divide the court, the parliament, and the kingdom between them, as any terms of art whatsoever borrowed from reli

gion.

* Italian fingers then in vogue. Margarita was afterwards married to Dr. Pepusche.

gion. And therefore I think there is little force in this objection against Christianity, or profpect of fo great an advantage as is propofed in the abolishing of it.

this matter

It is again objected, as a very abfurd ridiculous cuftom, That a fet of men fhould be fuffered, much less employed, and hired, to bawl one day in feven, against the lawfulness of thofe methods most in ufe towards the pursuit of greatnefs, riches, and pleasure, which are the conftant practice of all men alive on the other fix. But this objection is, I think, a little unworthy fo refined an age as ours. Let us argue calmly. I appeal to the breast of any polite freethinker, whether, in the pursuit of gratifying a predominant paffion, he hath not always felt a wonderful incitement, by reflecting it was a thing forbidden: and therefore we fee, in order to cultivate this tafte, the wisdom of the nation hath taken special care, that the ladies fhould be furnished with prohibited filks, and the men with prohibited wine. And, indeed, it were to be wished, that fome other prohibitions were promoted, in order to improve the pleasures of the town, which, for want of fuch expedients, begin already, as I am told, to flag and grow languid, giving way daily to cruel inroads from the fpleen.

It is likewife propofed, as a great advantage to the public, That if we once difcard the fyftem of the gospel, all religion will, of course, be banish

ed

ed for ever; and confequently, along with it, thofe grievous prejudices of education; which, under the names of virtue, confcience, honour, juftice, and the like, are fo apt to disturb the peace of human minds; and the notions whereof are fo hard to be eradicated by right reafon or free-thinking, fometimes during the whole courfe of our lives.

Here, firft, I obferve how difficult it is to get rid of a phrafe, which the world is once grown fond of, though the occafion that firft produced it be entirely taken away. For feveral years past, if a man had but an ill-favoured nofe, the deepthinkers of the age would, fome way or other, contrive to impute the caufe to the prejudice of his education. From this fountain are faid to be derived all our foolish notions of justice, piety, love of our country; all our opinions of God, or a future ftate, heaven, hell, and the like; and there might formerly, perhaps, have been fome pretence for this charge. But fo effectual care hath been fince taken to remove those prejudices, by an entire change in the methods of education, that (with honour I mention it to our polite innovators) the young gentlemen who are now on the fcene, seem to have not the least tincture left of those infufions, or ftring of those weeds : and, by confequence, the reafon for abolishing nominal Christianity upon that pretext, is wholly

ceafed.

For

For the reft, it may perhaps admit a controverfy, whether the banishing all notions of religion whatsoever would be convenient for the vulgar. Not that I am, in-the leaft, of opinion with thofe who hold religion to have been the invention of politicians, to keep the lower part of the world in awe, by the fear of invisible powers; unless mankind were then very different from what it is now: for I look upon the mass or body of our people here in England to be as free-thinkers, that is to fay, as ftanch unbelievers, as any of the higheft rank. But I conceive fome scattered notions about a fuperior power, to be of fingular use for the common people, as furnishing excellent materials to keep children quiet, when they grow peevish, and providing topics of amusement in a tedious winter night.

Laftly, It is propofed, as a fingular advantage, That the abolishing of Chriftianity will very much contribute to the uniting of Proteffants, by enlarging the terms of communion, fo as to take in all forts of diffenters; who are now fhut out of the pale upon account' of a few ceremonies, which all fides confefs to be things indifferent: that this alone will effectually answer the great ends of a fcheme for comprehenfion, by opening a large noble gate, at which all bodies may enter; whereas the chaffering with diffenters, and dodging about this or the other ceremony, is but like opening a few wickets, and leaving them at jar, by which no more than one can get in at a

time, and that not without stooping, and fideling, and squeezing his body.

To all this I anfwer, That there is one darling inclination of mankind, which usually affects to be a retainer to religion, though the be neither its parent, its godmother, or its friend; I mean the spirit of oppofition, that lived long before Christianity, and can eafily fubfift without it. Let us, for inftance, examine wherein the oppofition of fectaries among us confists. We fhall find Christianity to have no fhare in it at all. Does the gospel any where prescribe a ftarched, fqueezed, countenance, a stiff formal gait, a fingularity of manners and habit, or any affected modes of fpeech, different from the reasonable part of mankind? Yet, if Christianity do not lend its name to ftand in the gap, and to employ or divert thefe humours, they muft, of neceffity, be spent in contraventions to the laws of the land, and disturbance of the public peace. There is a portion of enthusiasm affigned to every nation, which, if it hath not proper objects to work on, will burst out, and fet all in a flame. quiet of a ftate can be bought by only flinging men a few ceremonies to devour, it is a purchase no wife man would refuse. Let the maftiffs amuse themselves about a sheep's skin ftuffed with hay, provided it will keep them from worrying the flock. The inftitution of convents abroad, feems, in one point, a strain of great wisdom; there being few irregularities in human paffions,

If the

that

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