unt mansiones in
domo patris mei_ (in my Father's house are many mansions). An
Englishman, as one to whom liberty is natural, may go to heaven his own
way.

Nevertheless, though every one is permitted to serve God in whatever mode
or fashion he thinks proper, yet their true religion, that in which a man
makes his fortune, is the sect of Episcopalians or Churchmen, called the
Church of England, or simply the Church, by way of eminence. No person
can possess an employment either in England or Ireland unless he be
ranked among the faithful, that is, professes himself a member of the
Church of England. This reason (which carries mathematical evidence with
it) has converted such numbers of Dissenters of all persuasions, that not
a twentieth part of the nation is out of the pale of the Established
Church. The English clergy have retained a great number of the Romish
ceremonies, and especially that of receiving, with a most scrupulous
attention, their tithes. They also have the pious ambition to aim at
superiority.

Moreover, they inspire very religiously their flock with a holy zeal
against Dissenters of all denominations. This zeal was pretty violent
under the Tories in the four last years of Queen Anne; but was productive
of no greater mischief than the breaking the windows of some
meeting-houses and the demolishing of a few of them. For religious rage
ceased in England with the civil wars, and was no more under Queen Anne
than the hollow noise of a sea whose billows still heaved, though so long
after the storm when the Whigs and Tories laid waste their native
country, in the same manner as the Guelphs and Ghibelins formerly did
theirs. It was absolutely necessary for both parties to call in religion
on this occasion; the Tories declared for Episcopacy, and the Whigs, as
some imagined, were for abolishing it; however, after these had got the
upper hand, they contented themselves with only abridging it.

At the time when the Earl of Oxford and the Lord Bolingbroke used to
drink healths to the Tories, the Church of England considered those
noblemen as the defenders of its holy privileges. The lower House of
Convocation (a kind of House of Commons) composed wholly of the clergy,
was in some credit at that time; at least the members of it had the
liberty to meet, to dispute on ecclesiastical matters, to sentence
impious books from time to time to the flames, that is, books written
against themselves. The Ministry w