r
their clamour against religious mysteries, since it is plain, they were
not invented by the clergy, to whom they bring no profit, nor acquire
any honour. For every clergyman is ready either to tell us the utmost he
knows, or to confess that he does not understand them; neither is it
strange that there should be mysteries in divinity as well as in the
commonest operations of nature.

And here I am at a loss what to say upon the frequent custom of
preaching against atheism, deism, freethinking, and the like, as young
divines are particularly fond of doing especially when they exercise
their talent in churches frequented by persons of quality, which as it
is but an ill compliment to the audience; so I am under some doubt
whether it answers the end.

Because persons under those imputations are generally no great
frequenters of churches, and so the congregation is but little edified
for the sake of three or four fools who are past grace. Neither do I
think it any part of prudence to perplex the minds of well-disposed
people with doubts, which probably would never have otherwise come into
their heads. But I am of opinion, and dare be positive in it, that not
one in an hundred of those who pretend to be freethinkers, are really so
in their hearts. For there is one observation which I never knew to
fail, and I desire you will examine it in the course of your life, that
no gentleman of a liberal education, and regular in his morals, did ever
profess himself a freethinker: where then are these kind of people to be
found? Among the worst part of the soldiery made up of pages, younger
brothers of obscure families, and others of desperate fortunes; or else
among idle town fops, and now and then a drunken 'squire of the country.
Therefore nothing can be plainer, than that ignorance and vice are two
ingredients absolutely necessary in the composition of those you
generally call freethinkers, who in propriety of speech, are no thinkers
at all. And since I am in the way of it, pray consider one thing
farther: as young as you are, you cannot but have already observed, what
a violent run there is among too many weak people against university
education. Be firmly assured, that the whole cry is made up by those who
were either never sent to a college; or through their irregularities and
stupidity never made the least improvement while they were there. I have
at least[11] forty of the latter sort now in my eye; several of them in
this to