ON MATTERS OF BELIEF. Jt 



felves once more under the infpedtion of their fliep- 

 herds and chief fhepherds in the fame conftitution as 

 they were in the fourth and fifth centuries; and it 

 would be the bulinefs of thofe fhepherds, in the words 

 of the pfalmift, to feed them in green paftures, to lead 

 them to frefh water brooks, and to let thern fufFer want 

 in no thing that is good. They have no fpurious au- 

 thority, no chimerical prerogatives, no claims which 

 would be fhaken by every inveftigation, and are only 

 grounded on ignorance, fuperftition, and the dread of 

 Ernulphus's curfes, the fcafFold, and the faggot. What 

 then can induce them to hate the light they have no 

 need to Hiun ? to hold the reafon in bondage which is 

 already on their fide ? to oppofe the illumination, 

 which, by " fecuring the main fortrefs of the chrif* 

 * c tian religion, by giving up the untenable outworks, 

 ** againft all the attacks of reafon," gives an immovable 

 liability, to their authority and to their rights ? They 

 have nothing to gain by fuperftition, nothing by the 

 adulteration of pure chriftianity with the commixtures 

 of magical and demoniftical rubbilh, nothing by mira- 

 culous images, devil's-bane, pious tales of apparitions, 

 and other fuch like trumpery : and they think too juftly 

 and nobly for ever defiring to inherit the romilh ware- 

 houfe of indulgencies, jubilee-years, apotheofes of 

 crack-brained monks and lunatic nuns, talifmannical 

 amulets, ladies of Loretto, holy wax-candles, facred 

 bells, and the like contemptible branches of finance. 

 In a word, there is no reafon to imagine, that, under 

 the foregoing fuppolition, on the difmiffion of thefe 

 evident abufes, they would not hail with joy that evi- 

 dent improvement, and be the firft to open the door 



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