The Reason, Sir, why I have said so much on this Head, is, that among those who outwardly shew the greatest Zeal for Religion and the Gospel, I see hardly Any who teach us, either by Precept or Example, the Severity of Manners which Christianity requires. They seem to be much more sollicitous about the Name, than they are about the Thing it self; as if, when Men would but own themselves to be Christians, it was no great Matter for the Qualifications which must make them so. When of late I have cast my Eyes upon the Behaviour of some People, who shall be nameless, it has put me in Mind of the _Free-Masons_. These, you know, are divided in several Companies; each Company have a Lodge of their own; every Lodge has a Master; over all these Masters again, there is a Grand Master. Some of them meet once a Month; others not so often; they pretend to Mysteries, and eat and drink together; they make use of several Ceremonies, which are peculiar to themselves, with great Gravity; and with all this Bustle they make, I could never learn yet, that they had any Thing to do, but to be _Free-Masons_, speak well of the Honour of their Society, and either pity or despise all those who are not Members of it: Out of their Assemblies, they live and converse like other Men: And tho' I have been in Company with several of them, I profess, unless I am told it, I can never know, who is a _Free-Mason_, and who is not. I know, Sir, you love _Allegory_; and on that Score, I have been extremely delighted with what you say, Page 332, of your first Volume; where you justly ridicule and expose those Libertines, who pretend to be Patriots for _Liberty and Property_. I beg Leave, for the Benefit of other Readers, to transcribe the Passage. _When I hear, says Crito, these two Words in the Mouth of a_ Minute Philosopher, _I am put in Mind of the_ Teste di Ferro _at Rome. His Holiness, it seems, not having Power to assign Pensions, on_ Spanish _Benefices, to Any but Natives of_ Spain, _always keeps at_ Rome _Two Spaniards, call'd_ Teste di Ferro, _who have the Name of all such Pensions, but not the Profit, which goes to_ Italians. _As we may see every Day, both Things and Notions placed to the Account of Liberty and Property, which in Reality neither have, nor are meant to have any Share in them. What! is it impossible for a Man to be a Christian, but he must be a Slave; or a Clergyman, but he must have the Principles of an Inquisitor?_ This is very _a propos_, and admirably well applied. I thank you for it. I know Abundance of Divines, who seem to be very fond of the World, and are always grasping at Wealth and Power; and whenever I hear Any of these mention their Concern for Religion, and the Spiritual Welfare of Others, as they often do, I shall always think on _Crito_'s Story, laugh heartily, and say no more. For if I should imitate him, in exclaiming every Time I saw _both Things and Notions placed to the Account of_ Religion and the Spiritual Welfare of Others, _which, in