Yet, in this respect, they are but on a level with other men of most
other professions; nay, with all men out of them, that aspire to rise,
by their merits or the favour of their superiors, to any distinction
in the world. And though we commonly say, that the clergy should be
_only_ animated by purer motives, yet you cannot expect, nay would not
seriously wish, that they should be altogether insensible to such as
these.
It is true, in countries where the clergy have a dependance on some
foreign power, or where they have usurped an independent power to
themselves, or where, lastly, the civil constitution is so ill defined
that the privileges of the subject lie at the mercy of the prince; in
each of these cases, the ambition of the clergy may be, and in fact
has been, productive of many public mischiefs. But our Protestant
clergy, who are in no foreign subjection, claim no independency, and
fill their place in a system all whose parts are, now at least, exactly
regulated by known laws, cannot, by their private ambition, disturb the
general interest, and have no peculiar inducements to attempt it. And
though particulars may sometimes, by their follies and indiscretions,
dishonour themselves, yet the effect cannot be considerable, and
certainly affords no good reason for taking the province of education,
for which on so many accounts they are well qualified, out of their
hands.
Your Lordship’s candour and equity will then, upon the whole, permit an
obvious distinction to be made between the MEN and their PROFESSION.
Too many of the sacred order, I confess, and am sorry for it, seem now
to have their minds perverted by those principles, and heated by those
passions, which do little credit to their function, or themselves; and
are equally inconsistent with the genius of that religion they profess
to teach, as they are unfriendly to that legal constitution both of
church and state, which they have bound themselves to support. But
their _profession_ is little concerned in all this; and in a succession
or two of these men (if the present set be, many of them, incorrigible)
you may surely reckon upon all those prejudices and passions being
worked off, which now administer the occasion of so much dislike to it.