Let the falaries of all medical people be paid, if not by tithes, at least in fome other manner that fhall create an oppofition of intereft between them and their patients; and whether these be more or fewer, let not their salaries be affected by that circumstance.

Let every physician be allowed the fuperintendence of more towns than one, according to his intereft at court, or with particular patrons; and let him employ, on as cheap terms as they can be procured, whatever substitutes he pleases, with power, uncontrouled by his patients, to act in all refpects for their principal.

Lastly, in order to do honour to the profeffion, and to give it fuch a respectability in the eyes of the nation as may be neceffary to its having a proper effect, let a certain number of the more eminent in the faculty be appointed by the king to have feats in parliament, and to give their advice. when any question relating to the health of his majesty's fubjects fhall come before them.

Thus the profeffion of medicine will form an alliance with the ftate, which may be beneficial to both, and for which it has as good pretenfions as that of religion. This, indeed, seems neceffary to complete the fyftem of alliance; as then the minifters of ftate will have in their pay, and in their interest, all those who have the care of both the bodies and the fouls of men, whereas at prefent, their fyftem is manifeftly imperfect.

Let all this be done, and then fay what kind of medical affiftance could you (obferve I do not fay the miniftry, or the court, but could you) expect from fuch physicians and apothecaries? You would certainly take from them every motive they could have to give any attention to you, because you had made it their intereft to be looking always to their fuperiors. In this cafe, I imagine, you would rather trust yourselves to nature, in case of sickness, or to any empiric whatever, whom you were permitted to employ, than to fuch physicians of the establishment.

Can you then wonder at the increase of Diffenters and Methodists of various kinds on the one hand, and of unbe

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lievers on the other, in fuch a ftate of things as this? Now, my friends, if you only took the fame care of your fouls, as the phrafe is, that you do of your bodies, you would see the abfurdity of a state ministry in the fame light with this of ftate physicians and apothecaries.

Thefe, my friends, are only a part of the complex system of your church establishment. On which ever fide you view it, you will fee fimilar weakneffes, fuch as, without gunpowder, or any high wind, threaten an approaching fall. The universities, in particular, from which, perhaps with the best intentions with refpect to us, you exclude our youth, call most loudly for reformation. But this must be the result of your own thinking and exertions. You must not expect that the clergy will promote any reformation of a fyftem in the continuance of which they are so much interested. You must do it yourselves, by petitions to the legiflature; and if you be in earneft, and any thing like unanimous, you will be heard. Is it not a difgrace to a protestant country, that there should, in so many important respects, be greater abuses in its church government than in that of the Catholics; that our civil constitution should be so excellent, and yet its ally, as it is called, the ecclefiaftical part, of the fame fyftem, be fo imperfect?

The use of this expenfive fyftem is to provide for the inftruction of the country in the principles of christianity; but it by no means answers its end. For it is not one half of the inhabitants that are taught any religion at all. They attend no public worship, and it is not the intereft of the clergy to promote their attendance; because their incomes are altogether independent of it. In popifh countries the cafe is far otherwife. In all of them care is taken, by one means or other, that every perfon is inftructed in his religion, and every open neglect of the known duties of it is regularly animadverted upon. The ftate, in my opinion, has no business to meddle with it; but if it pretend to do it at all, and if an order of men be amply provided for on this account, care fhould be taken that the end of the

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inftitution be answered. At prefent, the whole kingdom is taxed, and in the most inconvenient manner poffible, for the maintenance of religion; when, after all, the religion of a very great proportion of those who have any is provided for out of their own private purfes, and they who do not chufe to have any, which is the case of the greatest part of both the highest and the lowest claffes of the people, are not fo much as admonished on the fubject.

Whenever the wants of the state shall make it neceffary to examine strictly into its refources and expenditure, the great fum that is now given for the maintenance of religion, will either be wholly withdrawn, or care will be taken that it be better applied. Would it not be better, for inftance, if the government made fome provifion for having all the poor taught to read and write; that when, by this means, they had acquired the civilization, and capacity for judging, which they now want, they might chufe a religion for themfelves, than impose upon them, one which they are not capable of examining. This fcheme for communicating knowledge in general, would not coft the country one tenth part so much that it now does to have them taught religion, which, after all, is not taught to any purpose.

I am, &c.

LETTER

LETTER XXI.

Of the Calumnies contained in a Pamphlet intitled

THEODOSIUS.

My generous Townímen and Neighbours,

HAVING refuted the calumnies of Mr. Burn, by which

he endeavoured to exhibit me as a perfon who paid no regard to Revelation, and who avowed principles fubverfive of all moral virtue, I fhall, in this Letter, give you an account of an attempt of a similar nature, the object of it being to represent me as an abfolute Atheist, and a teacher of Atheism to others, when my life has been devoted to the purpose of teaching, from the pulpit and from the press, the principles of natural and revealed religion; and my writings on these subjects are more numerous than those of any person in this, or probably in any other country whatever. The defamatory tale has, however, been eagerly circulated by the clergy, not only of this town and neighbourhood, but by those of higher rank, in London and elfewhere. For a long time I only fmiled at the story, and never meant to take any public notice of it. At length, however, I was prevailed upon to make fome inquiry into it, and I shall now lay before you the result of that inquiry.

The calumny is contained in a pamphlet intitled, THEODOSIUS, written in the character of an aged clergyman, who fays, that he visited Mr. Silas Deane on his death-bed, and then received from him, in a long converfation (the particulars of which are given in the form of a dialogue in five pages, p. 11, &c.) an acknowledgment of his having been taught his Atheistical principles by me*.

* In a Print, intitled, Sedition and Atheism defeated, Silas Deane is reprefented on his death-bed, and a clergyman ftanding by him, in the attitude of holding up his hands, and faying, No God! acho taught you

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He also represents many perfons, p. 59, as affirming that I "the most gloomy, the most miserable, and most dif"fatisfied person in existence; fometimes wearing a face of "refignation in public, but unable to conceal the perturba"tion of my mind in private." "Whether," fays this writer, "he is fhocked at approaching annihilation; or "whether he is but a partial convert to his own system, I "cannot determine; but I perfectly coincide in the pur<c port of the Marquis of Lanfdown's remonftrance, Sir, "faid his lordship, speaking to Dr. Priestley, were you fin"cerely satisfied of the truth of your theory, you could not "be that wretched defponding man you conftantly appear to be “when withdrawn from the public eye."

Laftly, he says, p. 26, "When a Socinian minifter, like "Dr. Priestley, has the temerity to attack the christian reli"gion from the pulpit and the prefs, in terms of infult and " abhorrence*; when he affirms in language that cannot "be mistaken, that the Virgin Mary is a whore, and the "Redeemer a bastard, I feel an honeft indignation in my "breast, and conceive forbearance is criminal.'

In a Note to this writer's narrative, concerning the death of Silas Deane, p. 13, he fays, "I defire to be unknown, "nor will I gratify idle curiofity, but if any refpectable "character doubt the truth of this narrative, I will refer "him to a clergyman of established reputation, who was an "auricular witness of the fame language, and of the fame " avowal from this deluded man. A line directed for the "author, to be left at Mr. Buckland's till called for, will "meet with due attention."

that doctrine? while the dying man replies, Dr. Priefley. This compartment in the print is called, The death bed avowal of Silas Deane, to which is annexed the following Note. "The particulars of this "awful and interefting converfion to Atheism, may be seen in a pam"phlet intitled, Theodofius, and fold with or without the print.”

*I fhould think that malice itself could not be fo credulous as to believe that any society of chriftians would bear their minister in his "attacks on the chriftian religion" from their pulpit, even without "terms of infult and abhorrence."

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