第2章 PREFACE(2)

And is there no priestcraft in the Church of England?There is certainly,or rather there was,a modicum of priestcraft in the Church of England,but I have generally found that those who are most vehement against the Church of England are chiefly dissatisfied with her because there is only a modicum of that article in her-were she stuffed to the very cupola with it,like a certain other Church,they would have much less to say against the Church of England.

By the other Church,I mean Rome.Its system was once prevalent in England,and,during the period that it prevailed there,was more prolific of debasement and crime than all other causes united.The people and the government at last becoming enlightened by means of the Scripture spurned it from the island with disgust and horror,the land instantly after its disappearance becoming a fair field,in which arts,sciences,and all the amiable virtues flourished,instead of being a pestilent marsh where swine-like ignorance wallowed,and artful hypocrites,like so many Wills-o'-the-wisp,played antic gambols about,around,and above debased humanity.

But Popery still wished to play her old part,to regain her lost dominion,to reconvert the smiling land into the pestilential morass,where she could play again her old antics.From the period of the Reformation in England up to the present time,she has kept her emissaries here,individuals contemptible in intellect,it is true,but cat-like and gliding,who,at her bidding,have endeavoured,as much as in their power has lain,to damp and stifle every genial,honest,loyal,and independent thought,and to reduce minds to such a state of dotage as would enable their old Popish mother to do what she pleased with them.

And in every country,however enlightened,there are always minds inclined to grovelling superstition-minds fond of eating dust and swallowing clay-minds never at rest,save when prostrate before some fellow in a surplice;and these Popish emissaries found always some weak enough to bow down before them,astounded by their dreadful denunciations of eternal woe and damnation to any who should refuse to believe their Romania;but they played a poor game-the law protected the servants of Scripture,and the priest with his beads seldom ventured to approach any but the remnant of those of the eikonolatry-representatives of worm-eaten houses,their debased dependants,and a few poor crazy creatures amongst the middle classes-he played a poor game,and the labour was about to prove almost entirely in vain,when the English legislature,in compassion or contempt,or,yet more probably,influenced by that spirit of toleration and kindness which is so mixed up with Protestantism,removed almost entirely the disabilities under which Popery laboured,and enabled it to raise its head and to speak out almost without fear.

And it did raise its head,and,though it spoke with some little fear at first,soon discarded every relic of it;went about the land uttering its damnation cry,gathering around it-and for doing so many thanks to it-the favourers of priestcraft who lurked within the walls of the Church of England;frightening with the loudness of its voice the weak,the timid,and the ailing;perpetrating,whenever it had an opportunity,that species of crime to which it has ever been most partial-DEATHBED ROBBERY;for as it is cruel,so is it dastardly.Yes,it went on enlisting,plundering,and uttering its terrible threats till-till it became,as it always does when left to itself,a fool,a very fool.

Its plunderings might have been overlooked,and so might its insolence,had it been common insolence,but it-,and then the roar of indignation which arose from outraged England against the viper,the frozen viper,which it had permitted to warm itself upon its bosom.

But thanks,Popery,you have done all that the friends of enlightenment and religious liberty could wish;but if ever there were a set of foolish ones to be found under heaven,surely it is the priestly rabble who came over from Rome to direct the grand movement-so long in its getting up.

But now again the damnation cry is withdrawn,there is a subdued meekness in your demeanour,you are now once more harmless as a lamb.Well,we shall see how the trick-'the old trick'-will serve you.