This, in the present condition of
the world, would be the last corruption of the church, the utter
ruin of the clerical character, the most dangerous shock that the
state ever received through a misunderstood arrangement of religion. I
know well enough that the bishoprics and cures under kingly and
seignioral patronage, as now they are in England, and as they have
been lately in France, are sometimes acquired by unworthy methods; but
the other mode of ecclesiastical canvass subjects them infinitely more
surely and more generally to all the evil arts of low ambition, which,
operating on and through greater numbers, will produce mischief in
proportion.
Those of you who have robbed the clergy think that they shall
easily reconcile their conduct to all Protestant nations, because
the clergy, whom they have thus plundered, degraded, and given over to
mockery and scorn, are of the Roman Catholic, that is, of their own
pretended persuasion. I have no doubt that some miserable bigots
will be found here, as well as elsewhere, who hate sects and parties
different from their own more than they love the substance of
religion, and who are more angry with those who differ from them in
their particular plans and systems than displeased with those who
attack the foundation of our common hope. These men will write and
speak on the subject in the manner that is to be expected from their
temper and character.
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