- This is only a covert fear, the apprehensive timidity of
indolent slugs, who guard, by sliming it over, the snug place, which
they consider in the light of an hereditary estate; and eat, drink,
and enjoy themselves, instead of fulfilling the duties, excepting a
few empty forms, for which it was endowed. These are the people who
most strenuously insist on the will of the founder being observed,
crying out against all reformation, as if it were a violation of
justice. I am now alluding particularly to the relicks of popery
retained in our colleges, when the protestant members seem to be
such sticklers for the established church; but their zeal never
makes them lose sight of the spoil of ignorance, which rapacious
priests of superstitious memory have scraped together. No, wise in
their generation, they venerate the prescriptive right of
possession, as a strong hold, and still let the sluggish bell tinkle
to prayers, as during the days when the elevation of the host was
supposed to atone for the sins of the people, lest one reformation
should lead to another, and the spirit kill the letter. These Romish
customs have the most baneful effect on the morals of our clergy;
for the idle vermin who two or three times a day perform in the most
slovenly manner a service which they think useless, but call their
duty, soon lose a sense of duty. At college, forced to attend or evade
public worship, they acquire an habitual contempt for the very
service, the performance of which is to enable them to live in
idleness.
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