Chap. XIV.] AND Religion. 241 



children ! Since the EngUsh, Irish, and Scotch, are so 

 good, so religious, and so moral here without glebes and 

 tithes; why not use these glebes and tithes for other 

 purposes, seeing they are possessions which can legally 

 be disposed of in another manner ? 



439. But, the fact is, that it is the circumstance of 

 the church being established by law that makes it of 

 little use as to real religion, and as to morals, as far as 

 they be connected >vith religion. Because, as we shall 

 presently see, this establishment forces upon the people, 

 parsons whom they cannot respect, and whom indeed, 

 they must despise ; and, it is easy to conceive, that the 

 moral precepts of those, whom we despise on account 

 of their immorality, we shall never much attend to, even 

 supposing the precepts themselves to be good. If a 

 precept be selt^vidently good ; if it be an obvious duty 

 •which the parson inculcates, the inculcation is useless to 

 us, because, whenever it is wanted to guide us, it will 

 occur without the suggestion of any one ; and, if the 

 precept be not solf-evidently good, we shall never 

 receive it as such from the lips of a man, whose cha- 

 racter and life tell us we ought to suspect the truth of 

 every thing he utters. When the matters as to which 

 we are receiving instructions are, in their nature, wholly 

 dissimilar to those as to which we have witnessed the 

 conduct of the teacher, we may reasonably, in listening 

 to the precept, disregard that conduct. Because, Ibr 

 instance, a man, though a very indifferent Christian, 

 may be a most able soldier, seaman, physician, lawyer, 

 or almost any thing else ; and what is more, may be 

 honest and zealous in the discharge of his duty in any of 

 these several capacities. But, when the conduct, which 

 we have observed in the teacher belongs to the same 

 department of liie as the precept which he is delivering, 

 if the one differ from the other we cannot believe the 

 teacher to be sincere, unless he, while he enforces his 



grecept upon us, acknowledge his own misconduct, 

 uppose ma, for instance, to be a great liar, as great a 

 liar, if possible, as Stewart of the Courier, who has 

 . said that I have been " fined 700 dollars for writing 

 " against the American government," though I never 

 was prosecuted in America in all my life. Suppose me 

 M 



