world to last. It is ignorance of causes and appearances which makes
shallow people judge so much to their advantage. They are governed by
the administration and almost legislature of Holland through advantage
of property; nor are they fit to be set in balance with a noble kingdom,
&c. like a man that gets a hundred pounds a year by hard labour, and one
that has it in land.

Page 280. "It may be worth enquiring, whether the difference between the
several sects in England, &c." A noble notion started, that union in the
Church must enslave the kingdom: reflect on it. This man hath somewhere
heard, that it is a point of wit to advance paradoxes, and the bolder
the better. But the wit lies in maintaining them, which he neglecteth,
and formeth imaginary conclusions from them, as if they were true and
uncontested.

He adds, "That in the best constituted Church, the greatest good which,
can be expected of the ecclesiastics, is from their divisions." This is
a maxim deduced from a gradation of false suppositions. If a man should
turn the tables, and argue that all the debauchery, atheism,
licentiousness, &c. of the times, were owing to the poverty of the
clergy, &c. what would he say? There have been more wars of religion
since the ruin of the clergy, than before, in England. All the civil
wars before were from other causes.

Page 283. "Prayers are made in the loyal university of Oxford, to
continue the throne free from the contagion of schism. See Mather's
sermon on the 29th of May, 1705." Thus he ridicules the university while
he is eating their bread. The whole university comes with the most loyal
addresses, yet that goes for nothing. If one indiscreet man drops an
indiscreet word, all must answer for it.