e as sacred. But, to avoid
prolixity, I shall confine myself to the different opinions among the
priests of the Church of England, and here only give you a specimen,
because even these are too many to be enumerated.

I have found out a bishop, (though indeed his opinions are condemned by
all his brethren,) who allows the Scriptures to be so difficult, that
God has left them rather as a trial of our industry than a repository of
our faith, and furniture of creeds and articles of belief; with several
other admirable schemes of freethinking, which you may consult at your
leisure.

The doctrine of the Trinity is the most fundamental point of the whole
Christian religion. Nothing is more easy to a freethinker, yet what
different notions of it do the English priests pretend to deduce from
Scripture, explaining it by "specific unities, eternal modes of
subsistence," and the like unintelligible jargon? Nay, it is a question
whether this doctrine be fundamental or no; for though Dr. South and
Bishop Bull affirm it, yet Bishop Taylor and Dr. Wallis deny it.[11] And
that excellent freethinking prelate, Bishop Taylor, observes, that
Athanasius's example was followed with too much greediness; by which
means it has happened, that the greater number of our priests are in
that sentiment, and think it necessary to believe the Trinity, and
incarnation of Christ.[12]

[Footnote 11: Dr. Robert South (1633-1716), rector of Islip. The
reference by Swift is to his controversy with Sherlock on the doctrine
of the Trinity. The two disputants got into such depths that both were
charged with heresy.

Dr. George Bull (1634-1710), Bishop of St. David's, wrote the "Defensio
Fidei Nicenae." For his exposition of the necessity for the belief in the
divinity of the Son of God he received the thanks of Bossuet.

Dr. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor (1613-1667), and author of
"Holy Living" and "Holy Dying," wrote also "Unum Necessarium, or the
Doctrine and Practice of Repentance." His treatment, in this work, of
the doctrine of original sin was considered heterodox by Bishop Warner
and Dr. Sanderson, and a controversy ensued, in the course of which
Taylor was imprisoned in Chepstow Castle on a charge of being concerned
in a Royalist insurrection.

Dr. John Wallis (1616-1703), here referred to, is the famous
mathematician and divine, and one of the original members of the Royal
Society. He is mentioned in the text by Swift because of a work