To Dr. Johnson's opinion I only add that of Mr. Belsham, who in his _Calm Inquiry_, &c. observes:--"The Unitarians acknowledge that the scriptures were written for the instruction of the illiterate as well as of the learned, and they believe--that ALL _which is essential to doctrine or practice is_ SUFFICIENTLY INTELLIGIBLE _even to the meanest capacity_."
From these premises I conclude, that there is little danger of the spread of that _absurdity of absurdities_--INFIDELITY, where it is not supported by more plausible reasons than are contained in the writings of its votaries; but it is with pain, that I am obliged in justice to the subject to add, that its principal support has been the corrupt systems and lives of its professors.--Those ANTICHRISTIAN CHURCHES under whatever denomination, and in every country under heaven, which have been established by the civil magistrate:--THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE, which has displayed its brazen front _in the temple of God, exalting itself above all that is called God_; robbed { 63} the great head of the church of his peculiar prerogative, the sovereignty over conscience; and plundered countless millions of their rights and properties, thus turning the church into _a den of thieves_,--These ecclesiastical corruptions constitute a more formidable argument against christianity, although by no means an honest reason for rejecting it, than the writings of the whole infidel world united.[70]
[70] A modern divine gives us the following curious description of the Church of England.--"The governors of this society form a kind of aristocracy respecting the community at large, but each particular governor in his proper district is a sort of monarch, exercising his function both towards the inferior ministers and laity, according to the will of the supreme head of the church."--_The English Liturgy a Form of Sound Words; a Sermon delivered in the Parish Churches of St. Benet, Gracechurch Street, &c._ by George Gaskin, D.D.
How any man, with the New Testament before him, could possibly call such an _aristocratical_ and _monarchical_ church, one "formed according to the will of the Supreme Head," when he well knew that it was diametrically opposite to the letter and spirit of the most solemn, particular, and repeated directions of the Great Head of the Church on this subject:--"_Call no man your master on earth; one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren, &c._"--I shall not stay to inquire; but it may amuse the reader just to observe how this clerical pluralist exercises "_his function towards the laity_," and more especially as it relates to _tythes_:--that species of property which was first voluntarily given by the people for various benevolent purposes, but of which they were afterwards robbed by the clergy, who appropriated them to their own sole use. How they are sometimes raised, even in the present enlightened age, I lately discovered in a catalogue, at a sale of pawnbroker's unredeemed pledges, where, amongst other names and descriptions of property, I read as follows: