often the highest in this; for the proof of which assertion I might produce some signal instances among my lords the bishops.  The consequence has been uniform; for how ready soever the tradesmen of one Church are to expose the false wares—­that is, the errors and abuses—­of another, they never admit that there are any in their own; and he who admitted this in some particular instance would be driven out of the ecclesiastical company as a false brother and one who spoiled the trade.

Thus it comes to pass that new Churches may be established by the dissensions, but that old ones cannot be reformed by the concurrence, of the clergy.  There is no composition to be made with this order of men.  He who does not believe all they teach in every communion is reputed nearly as criminal as he who believes no part of it.  He who cannot assent to the Athanasian Creed, of which Archbishop Tillotson said, as I have heard, that he wished we were well rid, would receive no better quarter than an atheist from the generality of the clergy.  What recourse now has a man who cannot be thus implicit?  Some have run into scepticism, some into atheism, and, for fear of being imposed on by others, have imposed on themselves.  The way to avoid these extremes is that which has been chalked out in this introduction.  We may think freely without thinking as licentiously as divines do when they raise a system of imagination on true foundations, or as sceptics do when they renounce all knowledge, or as atheists do when they attempt to demolish the foundations of all religion and reject demonstration.  As we think for ourselves, we may keep our thoughts to ourselves, or communicate them with a due reserve and in such a manner only as it may be done without offending the laws of our country and disturbing the public peace.

I cannot conclude my discourse on this occasion better than by putting you in mind of a passage you quoted to me once, with great applause, from a sermon of Foster, and to this effect:  “Where mystery begins, religion ends.”  The apophthegm pleased me much, and I was glad to hear such a truth from any pulpit, since it shows an inclination, at least, to purify Christianity from the leaven of artificial theology, which consists principally in making things that are very plain mysterious, and in pretending to make things that are impenetrably mysterious very plain.  If you continue still of the same mind, I shall have no excuse to make to you for what I have written and shall write.  Our opinions coincide.  If you have changed your mind, think again and examine further.  You will find that it is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths.  One follows Nature and Nature’s God—­that is, he follows God in His works and in His Word; nor presumes to go further, by metaphysical and theological commentaries of his own invention, than the two texts, if I may use this expression, carry him very evidently.