etrically opposite to
the Doctrines they teach; and living in such a Manner, as if they
themselves did not believe one Word of the sacred Truths they are
inculcating.

An inordinate Love of Money is a reigning Sin of the Age. Now, let all the
Clergy of this Island join with one Voice in the Pulpit to preach it down,
dost thee think the Playing of their Lungs would be of any Significancy,
as long as the People see, that these Men set as great a Value upon the
ungodly Mammon, as the meanest of them can possibly do? When they see
these pretended pious Preachers, like _Simon Magus_, purchasing and
selling the Holy Ghost for Money; swallowing Oaths for the Sake of
Preferments, that for Years they had declared to be against their
Consciences; hunting eargerly after fat Livings, Tithes, and Pigs, and
heaping up Pluralities, and Commendams, to gratify their Pride and
Avarice: When at the same Time they grudge the least Indulgence to the
Drudges, to whose Care they commit the Souls of the People. With what Face
can they preach against Luxury, and Sensuality, when they themselves
wallow in the Fat of the Land, and loll about in their Leathern
Conveniencies, in sadly unedifying Pomp, Pride, and Vanity? Chastity,
Sobriety, and Temperance, are Virtues, perhaps as much Strangers in the
Tents of _Levi_, as in the Tabernacles of the Tribe of _Nepthali_. But
Pride, Spiritual Pride, the worst of Pride, and the Itch of Domination
have taken full Possession of the Cassock, and left the Laity but a faint
Mimickry of that ugly Habit of the Soul; And as for Charity, and Christian
Benevolence, those seem to be no Part of the Creed of a modern Priest.
Instead of healing the Divisions amongst Christians, bearing with the
Weakness and Infirmities of their Brethren, and, like the Apostle,
_becoming all Things to all Men, that by all Means some may be saved_;
instead of yielding in Matters of Indifference, and endeavouring to bring
about a Christian Coalition, they are obstinate in Trifles, tenacious of
the Rags, Fringes, and Patches of Religion, and damn all that won't go to
Heaven by the direct Path that they have marked out for them, but which
they themselves seem resolved by their daily Practice never to travel.

When the People, Friend, observe, (and their Eyes are quicker than their
Understanding) that the Parson of the Parish winks at the Immorality of
his Patron, because he has great Livings in his Gift; when they see him
join in his sensu