a prosperous Condition, and having suffer'd with the Crown in its Misfortunes, does now partake of the happy Fruits of its Restoration.
Nor will Experimental Philosophy be unthankful for the Assistance it shall receive: For it will enable us to provide beforehand, against any Alterations in Religious Affairs, which this Age may produce. If we compare the Changes to which Religion has been always subject, with the present face of Things, we may safely conclude, That whatever Vicissitude shall happen about it in our time, it will probably neither be to the Advantage of implicit Faith, nor of Enthusiasm, but of Reason. The Fierceness of violent Inspirations is in good measure departed: The Remains of it will be soon chas'd out of the World, by the remembrance of the terrible Footsteps it has every where left behind it. And though the Church of Rome still preserves its Pomp, yet the real Authority of that too is apparently decaying. It first got, by degrees, into Temporal Power, by the means of its Spiritual; but now it only upholds some Shadow of the Spiritual, by the Strength of the Temporal Dominion it has obtain'd.
This is the present State of Christendom. It is now impossible to spread the same Clouds over the World again: The universal Disposition of this Age is bent upon a rational Religion: And therefore I renew my affectionate Request, that the Church of England would provide to have the chief Share in its first Adventure; that it would persist, as it has begun, to incourage Experiments, which will be to our Church as the British Oak is to our Empire, an Ornament, and Defence to the Soil wherein it is planted.
Thus I have finish'd what I intended concerning Religion: wherein I desire it might not be thought
