porals, and to dictate in all things, is what I have heard; but was in hopes, that a freer Spirit, with an Increase of Liberty and Senfe, had put an End to fuch Ecclefiaftical Intrusion, and taught the present Set, that as their Ministry is known to be bounded by the Bible, and the Civil Conftitution, they ought to keep themfelve, warily within the Limits of their Ministry; that if they break the Bounds within which they are placed, and ufurp a Jurifdiction which they have not Force to maintain, People will scorn their Fairy Dominion, and they will lose their Credit, by grafping at Power, The Authority of Nurses and Pedagogues is confined to Infants and Pupils; it is ftinted in Time, as well as in Measure, and ends where Childhood ends, and where the Years of Difcretion begin. Should an old Woman take upon her to direct my Youth, because the fed and whipped me, when I was a Babe; or should my Tutor, who taught me to decline Verbs, or to chatter Logic, when I was a Boy, seek with his pedantic Talents to controul me, when a Man, I should be apt to think the Nurse and the Tutor, though perhaps alike wife, yet alike unfit for Maftership and Government.

THE Province of our fpiritual Nurfes is reAtrained to Offices purely fpiritual. In the Con

duct

duct of domestic and civil Life, in the Rules of good Senfe and Business, or even in those of juft Thinking and Reasoning; they are generally, of all Men, the most unfit to direct or advise. Besides their eminent Inexperience; befides the Narrowness of their Spirit, and that their Judgment is as defective and aukward, as is their Addrefs and Behaviour; they generally meddle with the Affairs of other Men from Motives intirely despicable and selfish, from Pride and Peevishness, from Refentment or Revenge, or for fome paltry Advantage, for a Fondness of being courted or feared, of being thought wife and important, or from fome other Confideration unworthy of a Man of Sense, or Honour, or Spirit.

IT is to no Purpose to say, that they only aim at correcting Vice, and ill Principles. For they often create Vice, and find it where it is not, in harmless Mirth and Amusement, and in Recreations where not only all Decency and regular Behaviour is obferved, but where Vice and Impertinence are ridiculed and lashed, and where Leffons of Morality and Honour are recommended and enforced. And for ill Principles, what they call fo, are often no other than harmless Speculations and Inquiries after Truth, or the Result of such Inquiries; often the most VOL. II. noble

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noble and beneficent Notions, fuch as reprefent the Deity uniform, difpaffionate, and impartial, abhorring human Cruelties, forgiving human Weaknesses and Miftakes, pleafed with a fincere Heart, nor expecting more from his Creatures than he has given them, and difengaged from all little Prejudices in Favour of Sects and Parties.

THIS creating and multiplying of Sins, and finding Tranfgreffions where the Bible finds none, has what the World calls Policy in it; because the more Sin abounds, the more neceffary ghoftly Men are thought; and this Policy they have improved fo notably, where they have been encouraged, or even fuffered, that they have turned almost every thing into Sin, except what is the most wretched and unmanly of all Sins, that of adoring and obeying Priests. But this Policy is attended with one flagrant Inconvenience: Every Man of Discernment will be apt to ask, If Iniquities are thus increafing, and Men grow daily worse, in spite of fuch numerous Monitors, in fpite of their holy Counfels, their pious Examples, their awful and repeated Denunciations; then what avails an expensive Army of Priests, who own themfelves daily conquered, and utterly unequal to the adverse Hoft? This looks like a Confeffion,

that

that either Satan fears them not, or that they do not all that might be done against Satan.

IN Popish Countries there are several Tranf actions, which appear like palpable Juggles between the Devil and the Friers; particularly in the Business of Exorcifm, and cafting out evil Spirits The Devil in Poffeffion often holds out a long and inveterate Siege, and when he is at laft ejected, he is free to enter into the fame Perfon again, or into fomebody else. If they have indeed Power over the Devil, why do they not caft him quite out of the World, at least out of the Country? Would we not think, that a General mocked us, if he afferted, that he had beaten the Enemies every-where, driven them out of every Town, and every particular Place, but ftill they were as ftrong as ever, and still ravaging the Country? I should think, that he and his Troops deserved to be broken, notwithstanding his boafted Skill, and invifible Feats.

METHINKS it is not the deepest Craft, for holy Men, armed with fuch high Powers, to be always appearing in a Fright, and crying for Help from unhallowed Laymen, upon every Phantom of Danger. Against the Cause of God, we are affured by himself, that the Gates of Hell fhall not prevail; and to such as main

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tain

tain his Cause by his own Affiftance, what Danger is to be apprehended, what human Affiftance can be wanted? The Apoftles wanted none against the whole Pagan World, against all the Hofts of Jewish and Pagan Priefts, breathing Perfecution, and deadly Rage: Yet the Apostles had no Establishment, no Revenues, no privileged Tribunals to harangue in, no Laws against Heretics or Gainfayers, nor even against Blafphemers; and were but a few Men, difperf ed over the World, without Money, without Mobs, and even without University Education.

AT prefent, and for many Ages past, we have had Apoftolic Men by Thousands in every Country, and Millions of Money they have coft almost every Country to maintain them. They are protected by Laws fufficiently indulgent, and without Number. Schools are erected and fupported at the public Expence for their Education; they themselves govern thefe Schools, and conduct the National Teaching, both in the Schools, and in the Pulpits. The first thing learned by Infants is to reverence them; they catechife us when Children, they instruct our Youth, and when we are Men, we are not manumitted from their Inftruction. Young Women are partial to

them,