SUCH Men do not pretend to teach their People the Meekness of Christianity:-No, their Zeal is to be Anger, and their Religion Cruelty. That Fiercenefs, which is inconfiftent with the Spirit of a Chriftian, is to be the certain Criterion of one whom they call a true Churchman; and that Mercy, which is infeparable from the Gofpel, is inconfiftent with the Temper of High-Church. Their Votaries are not taught to be Chriftians, which would spoil the Project, but High Churchmen; and instead of an Army of Martyrs, they are to be an Army of Martyr-makers. Nor is any Portion of Knowledge fit for them; for That might endanger the Lofs of their Vaffalage; and the teaching them to know for themselves, might extinguish their Zeal, and entirely change their Belief and Behaviour. The poor People are, in fhort, by fuch Guides taught to be ignorant, and to let others know for them: They must give up common Senfe, to learn their Duty; and abandon Christianity, without which they cannot have the Grace of God, to embrace rigid Conformity, which is neither a Sign, nor a Caufe of that Grace, but often a Bar and a Contradiction to it. This is so true, that whoever can reconcile Human Authority to Chriftian Charity, may reconcile Water and Fire, or do any other Impoffibility.

TENDERNESS and Moderation to thofe . who devoutly differ from us, though they are evident Principles and Duties of Christianity,

A 5

and

and even the Result of Reason, Justice, and Humanity, yet are never mentioned by the Mouth of Orthodoxy, but as Terms of Contempt or Reproach. Infomuch, that a pious Indulgence to Men of a different Communion, the most honeft, virtuous, inoffenfive Men; and an Indulgence for the invincible, and perhaps rational Perfuafions of the Mind, is the common Topick of Satire, and either ridiculed or reviled; whilft Men of the fame Side may go what Lengths they will in Violence and Villany, without Anger or Rebuke: And while one Man fhall have his House burned, his Brains beat out, and his Family ruined, for having a fcrupulous Confcience, which is much more offenfive than none at all; another Man fhall break all the Ten Commandments with Reputation.

HATRED and Bitterness of Spirit, are the firft Leffons which the unhappy People are taught by fuch Men; and the Gospel must be laid afide, and Good-Nature be extinguished, before modern Orthodoxy can be fwallowed, or modern Zeal infufed. Some of them may probably have learned to repeat the Catechifm by Rote, and even to have practifed profound Refpect and Submiffion to their Spiritual Superiors; but for the great and indifpenfable Duties of Religion, how can it be expected that they fhould mind them, while they daily fee their Teachers exprefs a much more warm Concern for their own Dignities and Revenues, than for the Honour and Intereft of pure un

mixed Religion, which was ever highest when Ecclefiaftical Power and Ecclefiaftical Excife were lowest.

WHEN a Congregation fees the Doctor much warmer againft Diffenters, than against Sin, and not half so zealous for the abfolute Neceffity of a virtuous and fober Life, as for the abfolute Neceffity of a rigid Conformity; what can they conclude, but either that he derides them, or that a ftupid Compliance with him, and a raging Refentment against Nonconformifts, are the great Duties of Churchmen? Add to this, that if his Life be vicious, fuch a Conclufion is ftill the more natural to vulgar Understandings. When they fee Church-Power fo violently contended for, and Gofpel-Holiness fo little regarded, or fo eafily difspensed with; what can their ftupid Understandings infer, but that a blind Submiffion to the Ecclefiafticks, is beyond all Evangelical Grace, and every Moral Virtue? They find by daily Experience, that they may commit Drunkenness or Whoredom, with Impunity, or at fmall Expence; but if they do not give the Doctor what he calls his Due, even to the last Sheaf of Corn, or the laft Pound of Wool, they are exposed in the Pulpit, harraffed in the Bishops Court, and probably, at laft, furrendered to Satan and Damnation.

BESIDES, they oftner hear Texts quoted in fome Pulpits, to abuse Separatists, than to recommend Godliness and Virtue; and fee

the

the Mode of performing a Duty more vehemently urged, than the Duty it felf: Thus kneeling at the Lord's Supper, is made by many of equal Importance with the Sacrament it felf; and the Cross in Baptism must no more be parted with, than the Ordinance of Baptism.

IT is therefore no wonder that the Affections and Antipathies of the common People have. neither proper Caufes nor proper Objects, and that they neither love the Golpel as fuch, nor hate Sin as fuch; but form their Faith and Devotion upon the Word and Behaviour of their Priefts, who have the keeping of their Religion, their Źeal, and their Paffions; and what hopeful Use they make of this terrible Dominion, we all know: For indeed the Christian Religion, is not fo much as known to the High-Church Vulgar, nor fuffered to be known; and as little do they feel, or are fuffered to feel, the tender Impulfes of Good-Nature and Humanity; but poffefs an Implacableness of Spirit, as oppofite to the Spirit of Chrift, as was the Spirit of Mahomet to that of Mofes.

G.

NUM

NUMBER XXXIV.

Wednesday, September 7. 1720.

Of FASTING. Part 2.

N my 27th Paper, I have made a Differtation upon Fafting; in this I fhall

continue it.

MONSIEUR de Fontenelle, in his Hiftory of Oracles, tells us, from Philoftratus, that the Oracle of Amphiaraus in Attica, delivered its Answers in Dreams; and that those who confulted it, must first fast well, in order to dream well: But when Fafting failed to produce a Phrenzy of Brain, and by it the Meaning of the God, who had no other Way of afcending into the Head, but upon the Fumes arifing from empty Bowels; then the Prieft helped his Mafter to bring forth a Dream, by wrapping up the devout Querift in the Skins of Victims, which being rubbed and impregnated with intoxicating Drugs, difpofed him to dream most divinely, and filled his Noddle with very hopeful

Prophecy.