There may be Ill Men in Holy Orders, and the Lewdness of the Person does
not at all derogate from the Sacredness of the Function. Avarice on the
one hand, is an Encouragement as well as a Protection to Licentiousness
on the other, when People know before-hand, that _Mony_ will Compound all
Differences. Nay, and _Mony_ is a _Protestant_ Reconciler too as well as
a _Popish_, when Passion and Corruption come once to be Authoriz’d under
the Venerable Cover of a Sacred Character; only the _Bishop_ Absolves
Himself in the one Case, as he does the _Curate_ in the other. So that
_Mony_ upon the Main, serves for the Touchstone of Common Honesty, Faith,
Law, and Religion: The Devil holds the Scale, and Profit or Loss is made
the Standard of Gospel or Heresy. It Pleads all Causes, Defends all
Titles, and turns Christianity it self into a Moot Point. It sets Texts
together by the Ears; as well as Divines, and makes the Voice of God to
be of more Authority in the Mouths of the Multitude, then the Oracles
of Holy Writ. ’Tis the Idol that Men of all Ranks and Professions Bow
to; States-men, Sword-men, Lawyers, Ecclesiasticks, _&c._ there’s hardly
anything in Nature that has the Heart to withstand it; Bating here and
there some singular Exception perhaps, from a General Rule. What are
Courts more then Common Markets, where Men are Bought and Sold in the
one, as Beasts are in the other? The Captain Fights for his Pay; the
Lawyer Pleads for his Fee, no Matter for the Conscience of the Cause;
the one’s a Soldier of Fortune he tells ye, the other is a Lawyer of
Fortune; and for the Business of Right or Wrong, ’tis not one Scruple of
the Question. ’Tis _Mony_ in fine, that like the Devil, makes Men Sail
with all Wind, and sets all Wheels agoing. Nay the very Altar it self
scapes not the Almighty Power of so Irresistible a Temptation; for we are
taught in this Fable, that an Episcopal Habit is not one jot better Proof
against Corruption, then a Colonels Buff-Coat. ’Tis not a Sanctimonious
Pretence, under a Pomp of Form and Title, without the Grace of an Inward
Affection and Integrity that will serve the Turn: The Articles of the
Christian Faith, and the Doctrin of our Blessed Lord and his Apostles,
are to Day, and to Morrow and the same for ever; not to be Moulded and
Accommodated to every turn of State, but to be held and kept Inviolate as
a standing Rule of all Ages. There are no such Worshippers of the Devil,
as the Buyers and Sellers of Souls; there’s nothing they’ll stick at,
but Shuffle, Cant, Juggle, Swear back and forward like so many Spiritual
Knights of the Post; serve all Times, and all Gods, even though Paganism
it self should turn up Trump; for this sort of Prostitutes steer all
their Actions by the Compass of _Viderit Utilitas_, and for the _Dogs
Legacy_ Absolve the Devil himself, and with this Beastly Avaricious
Bishop, Pronounce the Blackest Soul in Hell to be as White as Snow.