PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

an.d of Toleration .• 419 .
fl()~'er. III order to produce a few capable of im ..
pl'oving and continuing the ~tock of Christian €rudi.
tion, leisure and opportunity must be afforded to
great linmber... Original knowledge of luis kind
Cctll JleVCr be uIliversal; but it is of· .JIle utrrlost impc·rtance,
a!ld it is enough, that there be, at all times,
f() Jrld .~;' lne qualified for such inquiries~ and in whose
C(incurring and indepel1dent conclusions upon each
su )j-Jct, the re6t of the Christian community Utay
safely confide: whereas, without an order of clergy
et~llJcated f()r tIle purpo~e, and led to the prosecution
of tt~e~e st11clies by the habits, the l~isure, and- the .oh- .
_~ecr (:f th~ir v~)cation, it nlay well be q!lestioned
~lilcther tht- learning itf,elf would not have been lost,
by whic'l the records of our faith are interpreted and
We contend, therefore, t}lat an order of)
defl~ndeJ.
revl
elelegy is nece-,sary to perpetuate the evidences of
elation, and to interpret the obscurities of these aq
cient writing~, in _ which the -religion is contained.
But beside this~ which forms, liO doubt, one design
of their institution, the more ordinary offices of pub4
lic I:eaching, and of conducting public worship, can
'for qualifications not u~uaily to be met with amid&t
the employments of civil life. It has been acknowledged
by some, who cannot be suspected of making
unnecessary conces·,ions in favou~ of cstablishment~,
'~to be barely posJible that a person \Vll0 \\Tas never
educated for the office Sl10l1ld acquit himself \vith de ..
cenc~- as a public teacher of religion." And that
surely must he a very d~fective policy., which trusts
to possibilities for success, when provision is to be
made for re~ular aIld general in~truction. Little ob ..
jectic1n to this arguillent call be dr(l\VJl froln the ex~
ample of the Quakers., who, it may be said, furnish
In expf'rhnental proof that the worship dud profession
of Chri1>tianity may be upheld, \\-ithout a separate
clergy. The:-:e sectaries every where sub~st in can ...
junction with a regular e&tablishment. They have
aCCeS!i to the writings, they profit by the labours of
the clergy in common with other Christians. They
participate in that general diffusion of religious
knowledge, which the constant teaching of a more