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38 LIFE OF TOLAND.most arrogant and confident, I assure your lordship,that the purity of religion, and the prosperityof the state have ever been my chiefest aim.Civil liberty, and religious toleration, as the mostdesirable things in this world ; the most conducingto peace, plenty, knowledge, and every kindof happiness, have been the two main objects ofall my writings. But, as by liberty, I did notmean licentiousness ; so, by toleration, I did notmean indifference, and much less an approbationof every religion I could suffer. To be more particular,I solemnly profess to your lordship, thatthe religion taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles,but not as since corrupted by the subtractions,additions, and other alterations of any particularman, or company of men, is that which II do over andinfinitely prefer before all others.over again, repeat Christ and his apostles, exclusiveof either oral traditions, or the determinationsof synods, adding, what I declared before to theworld, that religion, as it came from their hands,was no less plain and pure, than useful and instructive; and that, as being the business of everyman, it was equally understood by every body.For Christ did not institute one religionlearned and another for the vulgar,'' &c.for theIn 1721, Dr. Hare published a book, entitledScripture Truth vindicatedy from the misrepreseniationsofthe Lord bishop of Bangor, &c. ;and,in the preface, takes occasion to observe, that