I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY 29 



it is not surprising to find that Priestley had very 

 definite opinions about Ecclesiastical Establish- 

 ments ; the only wonder is that these opinions 

 were so moderate as the following passages show 

 them to have been : 



" Ecclesiastical authority may have been necessary in the 

 infant state of society, and, for the same reason, it may perhaps 

 continue to be, in some degree, necessary as long as society is 

 imperfect ; and therefore may not be entirely abolished till civil 

 governments have arrived at a much greater degree of perfection. 

 If, therefore, I were asked whether I should approve of the 

 immediate dissolution of all the ecclesiastical establishments in 

 Europe, I should answer, No. . . . Let experiment be first 

 made of alterations, or, which is the same thing, of better estab- 

 lishments than the present. Let them be reformed in many 

 essential articles, and then not thrown aside entirely till it be 

 found by experience that no good can be made of them." 



Priestley goes on to suggest four such reforms 

 of a capital nature : 



" 1. Let the Articles of Faith to be subscribed by candidates 

 for the ministry be greatly reduced. In the formulary of the 

 Church of England, might not thirty-eight out of the thirty - 

 nine be very well spared ? It is a reproach to any Christian 

 establishment if every man cannot claim the benefit of it who 

 can say that he believes in the religion of Jesus Christ as it is 

 set forth in the New Testament. You say the terms are so 

 general that even Deists would quibble and insinuate them- 

 selves. I answer that all the articles which are subscribed at 

 present by no means exclude Deists who will prevaricate ; and 

 upon this scheme you would at least exclude fewer honest 



1 " Utility of Establishments," in Essay on First Principles tf 

 Government, p. 198, 1771. 



