A sort of theological smoke covers and hides this glowing hearth which burns in silence. A stranger who, at this time, had visited the country, would see in this religion only a choking vapor of arguments, controversies, and sermons. All those celebrated divines and preachers, Barrow, Tillotson, South, Stillingfleet, Sherlock, Burnet, Baxter, Barclay, preached, says Addison, like automatons, monotonously, without moving their arms. For a Frenchman, for Voltaire, who did read them, as he read everything, what a strange reading! Here is Tillotson first, the most authoritative of all, a kind of father of the Church, so much admired that Dryden tells us that he learned from him the art of writing well, and that his sermons, the only property which he left his widow, were bought by a publisher for two thousand five hundred guineas. This work has, in fact, some weight; there are three folio volumes, each of seven hundred pages. To open them, a man must be a critic by profession, or be possessed by an absolute desire to be saved. And now let us open them. "The Wisdom of being Religious"--such is his first sermon, much celebrated in his time, and the foundation of his success: "These words consist of two propositions, which are not distinct in sense;... So that they differ only as cause and effect, which by a metonymy, used in all sorts of authors, are frequently put one for another."[520] This opening makes us uneasy. Is this great orator a teacher of grammar? "Having thus explained the words, I come now to consider the proposition contained in them, which is this: "That religion is the best knowledge and wisdom. "This I shall endeavour to make good these three ways:-- "1st. By a direct proof of it; "2d. By shewing on the contrary the folly and ignorance of irreligion and wickedness; "3d. By vindicating religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence. I begin with the direct proof of this...."[521] Thereupon he gives his divisions. What a heavy demonstrator! We are tempted to turn over the leaves only, and not to read them. Let us examine his forty-second sermon: "Against Evil-speaking:" "Firstly: I shall consider the nature of this vice, and wherein it consists. "Secondly: I shall consider the due extent of this prohibition, To speak evil of no man. "Thirdly: I shall show the evil of this practice, both in the causes and effects of it. "Fourthly: I shall add some further considerations to dissuade men from it. "Fifthly: I shall give some rules and directions for the prevention and cure of it."[522]