AN ESSAY. It* peculiar religion by money, whether it be Pagan, Turkish, or Christian ? So far as I can see, it may be answered thus : IH. Answer. Surely the legislativepowers by mingling the revenues for the support of the government, with that of the domestic expence and equipage of the prince's family and court, have put it verymuch into the power and will of the prince, to to lay out more or less money yearly for the maintenance and honour of his person, his court and his family as he shall see fit ; always provided that the welfare and honour and offices of the state suffer no detriment, but have full allowance made for them. In the same manner We may reason about the expenses em- ployed in buildings, paintings, mathematic sciences or any of his own curiosities, or for the support of his own peculiar religion. If he maintain the necessaryofficers of the state in proper dig- nity, and keep up the necessary honours of his own court and household, as the dignity of his post requires, he has a liberty to save more money by prudence and thriftiness for any lawful di- versions, or buildings, or philosophical experiments, or the practice and propagation of his own religion, &c. I say, he may save so much more of his revenue for such purposes and practices, than if these civil expences were distinctly settled and limited by distinct parts of the revenue appropriated to each. X. But if many of the people should be of a different sect, and should find that the prince' saves and withholds too much money from the uses of the state and his public honour, and that he expends too much upon the practice and propagation of a re- ligion which they disapprove, it is possible they may grow un- easy and murmur at the largeness of their taxes imposed on them, which they daily observe to be spent, not in civil govern- ment, but in propagating a disagreeable religion : And in this case every such prince must be left to his own prudence, to judge how far his zeal to promote any peculiar religion, by . such large and constant expences, should be indulged to the dissatisfaction of his subjects. SECT. IX.-Of a Religion established among the Rulers and Officers of the State. I. After all our enquiries we have not hitherto found any one religion, whether natural or revealed, or pretending to reve- lation, which can be authoritatively established by the state through all the nation, and by that authority can justly demand or require the attendanceand compliance of all thepeople under any penalty. Letus see then whether some one religion maynot be established among all the ruling powers, and demand the attendance of the supreme and subordinate magistrates and offi- cers of the land, and this would be some sort of established religion.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=