по Help us to save free Gospel from the paw Of hireling wolves, whose conscience is their maw.-MILTON. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON. NEW-YORK: REPRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS. 1833. ADVERTISEMENT. THIS little work presents a concise and concentrated view of universal Priestcraft, to strengthen the present disposition to abate that nuisance in England: and, I think, it will be sufficient to establish any disinterested person in the conviction, that Priestcraft is one of the greatest curses which has afflicted the earth; and in the persuasion, that till its hydra heads are crushed there can be no perfect liberty: for nothing is more certain than that priests have, in all ages, followed one system-that of availing themselves of the superstitions of the people for their own interested motives; and nothing better attested than the crimes and delusions of that order of men treated of in this volume. There will be some who will exclaim, Oh! the author is a dissenter !-I am a dissenter; and one of the most sturdy and ceremony-despising class; and therefore, having deserted "the beggarly elements" of state creeds, am more anxious to release my fellow-men from the thraldom of state priests. I am a dissenter; and therefore, feeling the burden and the injustice of being compelled to support a system whose utility I deny, and whose corruptions need no proof, I have the greater reason to raise my voice against it. |