"Many books came out likewise against the church of England. This alarmed the bishops and clergy much; so that they set up to preach against rebellion, and the late times, in such a strain, that it was visible they meant a parallel between these and the present time. And this produced at last that heat and rage into which the clergy has run so far, that it is like to end very fatally. They, on their part, should have shewed more temper, and more of the spirit of the gospel; whereas, for the greatest part, they are the worst natured, the fiercest, indiscreetest, and most persecuting sort of people that are in the nation. There is a sort of them do so aspire to preferment, that there is nothing so mean and indecent that they will not do to compass it; and when they have got into preferments, they take no care, either of themselves, or of the flocks committed to their charge, but do generally neglect their parishes. If they are rich enough, they hire some pitiful curate, at as low a price as they can, and turn all over on him; or, if their income will not bear out that, they perform the public offices in the slightest manner they can, but take no care of their people in the way of private instruction or admonition; and so do nothing to justify the character of pastors or watchmen, that feed the souls of their people, or watch over them. And they allow themselves in many indecent liberties, of going to taverns and ale-houses, and of railing scurrilously against all that differ from them: and they cherish the profaneness of their people, if they but come to church, and rail with them against the dissenters; and are implacably set on the ruin of all that separate from them, if the course of their lives were otherwise ever so good and unblameable. In a word, many of them are a reproach to Christianity and to their profession; and are now, perhaps, one of the most corrupt bodies of men in the nation."--_Somers' Tracts_, p. 116. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 264: A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty.] [Footnote 265: Blue bonnet lords, a numerous store, Whose best example is, they're poor; Merely drawn in by hope of gains, And reap their scandal for their pains; Half-starved at court with expectation, } Forced to return to their Scotch station,} Despised and scorned by every nation. } _The New Converts._ ] [Footnote 266: This put the heathen priesthood in a flame, For priests of all religions are the same. _Absalom and Achitophel_, Part I. ] [Footnote 267: A Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers.] [Footnote 268: A Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers, p. 116.]