pious Beggar is better than an ungodly Squire; and that a poor believing Labourer is more excellent in the Sight of God than an unbelieving Lord; and that whatever Figure they may either of them make, whatever Fortune either of them may meet with here, in the next World all fhall be fet right; that the humble, faithful, perfevering Christian, shall there enjoy an eternal State of unspeakable Happiness, whilft their ungodly Superiors fhall be doomed to endless Misery and Defpair. Thefe fine Notions, fo agreeable to the natural Vanity of Mankind, tend to destroy all that neceffary Subordination, on which the Peace and Order of Society is known to depend. This fpirits up the lower Part of Mankind to renounce that reafonable Dependance and Subjection, which they naturally owe to their Superiors in Birth and Fortune, and makes them forget that they were intended for nothing higher than to be Vaffals and Beafts of Burden to their Betters, whofe Will and Pleafure ought to be the fole Rule and Measure of their religious, moral, political, and focial Conduct. No wonder, therefore, they are so tenacious of thofe religious Principles, which seem to raise them from their original Obfcurity, and fet them upon a level with the best Part of Mankind. This is a bad Story, but this is not the worft. Our Univerfities are the Bane and Peft of the Nation; there the fond indigested Principles of the Nurse, the Grand-mother, the School-dame, and the Parson, are formed into Systems, and fo deeply riveted in the Heads and Hearts of the young People, that not one in a thousand has the Courage to contradict or oppose them. Here they are quickly taught the Art of Wrangling, by which they pretend to justify

these

thefe ridiculous Systems, and even to act offenfively against the prevailing Principles and Practices of the polite World, and especially if they get into holy Orders (as they call them) and a Cure of Souls, they grow faucy and unsupportable to People of Taste and Figure; infomuch that I have known a mere Country Parfon, who hardly knew the Difference betwixt a Pointer and a Setting-dog, pretend to be as wife as a Juftice of the Quorum, or even as the Lord of the Manor. And further, to fhew their irreconcilable Averfion to our Principles and Society, they have erected in each University a Proteftant Inquifition, in which they pretend to judge, cenfure, and punish such of their Members as have Sense and Courage enough to oppose their Systems of Religion and Orthodoxy, and write or speak of our Side of the Question: Witness the outragious Perfecution of a few honest, inquifitive, penetrating Gentlemen, about feven Years ago, at Trinity College in Oxford, and the late barbarous Ufage of fome of our Friends, this very Year at Cambridge. When we juftly charge all this upon the Ignorance, the Pride, the perfecuting Spirit of Priefts, who, as John Dryden obferves, are in all Religions, the same stupid, infolent, domineering Tyrants, whenever they are trufted with Power they immediately infult us with a long Bead-roll of illuftrious Names, fuch as Bacon, Boyle, Pascal, Grotius, Clarendon, Nelfon, Locke, Addifon, Newton, Cheyne, &c, who, though Laymen, yet believed as heartily, and wrote as learnedly, in Defence of their Superftition, as any Prieft of them all. Ay, and a very good Reafon may be given for it; they had all been bred up in the fame dull Way, had fucked in the fame early PrejuE 4

dices

dices with their Mothers Milk, had run, through the Pedantry of Grammar Schools, and were thence sent to receive the finishing Stroke of orthodox Stupidity at thefe Universities. Had these Gentlemen had a modern polite Education, we fhould have seen them in a different Way of Thinking, Writing, and Acting, and, perhaps, as avowed Enemies to Prieftcraft and Superstition, as any of our Society. So long, therefore, as thefe Universities subfift and flourish, we have little Reason to expect any Good: Our Interefts and Principles are incompatible with theirs; either they muft fink, or we must fuffer; till they fall, we can have no reasonable Hope of rifing to any tolerable Degree of Credit or Power, much less to an Establish

ment.

We must therefore, upon all Occasions, bear our Testimony loudly against them; we must display and aggravate the secret, as well as known, Irregularities of those Jefuitical Societies; not forgetting efpecially the late Affair at Wadham College; and ftrongly infinuate fomething more than bare Sufpicions of the fame or greater Guilt in others, who are fo cunning at prefent as to conceal it from the World; and at the same time take care, among our intimate Friends, to lafh these impertinent Pedants for their unmannerly Behaviour to a worthy learned Gentleman, for doing no more than his Betters have done before him, and which, upon our Principle of natural Religion, we are able and ready to defend and justify*. Thus we have them under the Lash on both Sides of the Queftion. The Guilt (if it be a Crime), or the barbarous Severity (if it were none), must be charged upon the Vide Rights of the Church, p. 264.

whale

ΑΝ

ESSAY

ΟΝ

HONOUR,

IN

SEVERAL LETTERS,

Published in the

WEEKLY MISCELLANY.

By Mr. TIMOTHY HOOKER.

With a PREFACE, by R. HOOKER, Esq;.

Counts, and Dukes, in Honour of the Fair. Let them befides keep a Catalogue of the moft celebrated Courtefans, Fidlers, Singers, and Painters; let them pick up all the Stories of vicious Priests and lewd Nuns; let them learn to be very arch upon the ridiculous Pageantry and legendary Tales of the Romish Worship, with proper Inuendo's of Parallels at home. And when they have gleaned up a tolerable Taste of Modern Languages, and made a decent Collection of Modern Antiquities, Paintings, Bufto's, Coins, and Medals; then let them return home, laden with Pofitenefs and Experience, for the Honour and Service of their own Country, and ten thousand to one but we have them Body and Soul in the Intereft of our Society.

I have infenfibly drawn this Epiftle into a greater Length than I intended, and fear I have tired your Patience. I have but one Word more to add, to which I am fure you will take no Exception- that I 'conclude,

Dear Sir,

Your