swallow up all the rest. Quakers are disqualified from being members of
Parliament; nor can they enjoy any post or preferment, because an oath
must always be taken on these occasions, and they never swear. They are
therefore reduced to the necessity of subsisting upon traffic. Their
children, whom the industry of their parents has enriched, are desirous
of enjoying honours, of wearing buttons and ruffles; and quite ashamed of
being called Quakers they become converts to the Church of England,
merely to be in the fashion.



LETTER V.--ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND


England is properly the country of sectarists. _Multae sunt mansiones in
domo patris mei_ (in my Father's house are many mansions). An
Englishman, as one to whom liberty is natural, may go to heaven his own
way.

Nevertheless, though every one is permitted to serve God in whatever mode
or fashion he thinks proper, yet their true religion, that in which a man
makes his fortune, is the sect of Episcopalians or Churchmen, called the
Church of England, or simply the Church, by way of eminence. No person
can possess an employment either in England or Ireland unless he be
ranked among the faithful, that is, professes himself a member of the
Church of England. This reason (which carries mathematical evidence with
it) has converted such numbers of Dissenters of all persuasions, that not
a twentieth part of the nation is out of the pale of the Established
Church. The English clergy have retained a great number of the Romish
ceremonies, and especially that of receiving, with a most scrupulous