the Church of Rome are endeavouring, by Force or Fraud, to compafs our Ruin, all Men that mean well to our Conftitution, to our Laws and Liberties, should endeavour, as far as they can, to make us all of one Mind, and not disunite us further, and bring Discord and Confufion among us, which would make us a more easy Prey to the common Enemy. Ought not this Confideration to weigh something in the Ballance of their all-sufficient Reason? And if fo, then fure we may be allowed to say, that they should not be fo forward to publish their erroneous Opinions; they should at least be contented with difputing among themselves in private, and not by their Books endeavour to fpread their Notions among so many well meaning People, who (if they would let them alone) seem disposed to be quiet and peaceable Members of publick Society. Are not then these Free-thinkers a ftrange Sort of Men, that would run all Hazards, to the Ruin and Destruction of their Country, and that only to fhew a little of their Spleen and Spite against the Clergy?

That fuch Books as these are likely to do much Harm, I have already observed; that they cannot poffibly do any Good, must be apparent to every Body that will but fet themfelves to confider it.

For if there were indeed no revealed Religion, then every Man would have a Right to make a Rule for himself; or else (which is the fame Thing) the Fancies of his own Brain, which he will be fure to call the Dictates of his Reason, will be his Rule: And no Man can have a Right to impofe his own Reafon upon another, for your Reason has no more Authority to govern me, than my Reafon to govern you; except you will say, that the Reason of the Magiftrate fhould be a Rule for all the reft; but that, I fuppofe, is not what you would be at, for then you must submit to the national Religion.

Thus I think it apparent, that your Books muft occafion a great deal of Confufion, but cannot do any Good: And confequently that your Proceeding is irrational and immoral, and

you

you ought to defift from fuch an unfair and unjuft Undertaking.

And this you would certainly be convinced of, if you would only let your natural Reafon confider, that if it were indeed impoffible to prove the Truth of the Christian Religion, it must be as impoffible to adjust your System of Deism: For if Almighty God had given us no fupernatural Affiftance, then every Man's Reason would have an equal Right to determine. And in that Cafe, either the Traditions of the Fathers, or the Reafon, or Humaur, or Superftition of the Magistrate for the Time being, must conclude for the Whole. And this in fact has been the Cafe in all Ages and all Nations of the World, where God has not been pleafed vifibly to interpofe by his extraordinary Providence. I would ask then, why may you not as well be contented with the Christianity of the Magiftrate, as with the Deifm or Polytheifm of the Magistrate?

For certainly Christianity, Popery or Protestantism, Presbytery or Quakerim, Mahometanifin or Paganism, &c. have every one E 2

of

of them as fair a Claim in the World as your Deifm, if the Wisdom of the Deity think fit to permit them; and if the Almighty had never given to Man any particular Light, in the Things concerning himfelf, to one Part of the World any more than to another.

No, but you may say, these several Profeffions of Religion are not equally agreeable, nor any of them perfectly agreeable to your genuine natural Reafon. But what Right has your natural Reason to dictate to my natural Reason, or to the Reason of any Man alive?

If I have thought myself happy in the Belief of a future State, and the well grounded Hope and Expectation of Immortal Blifs, beyond what Eye bath feen, or Ear heard, or whatever entered into the Heart of Man to conceive; do you do well to disturb me, and tell me that all this is but a golden Dream, and that all my Hopes are but a Fool's Paradife? Especially when you can promise me no Paradife at all. For take away Divine Revelation, and it will be impoffible to prove a fu

ture

ture State: All your Notions of Immortality can be but vain Dreams and Suppofitions.

Does not then the Injustice of

your

Proceeding plainly appear in this? You endeavour all you can to take away from us Christians what we have been long in poffeffion of, and what we account of inestimable Value; and you have nothing to offer in return, that we can think worth accepting, Is not this unjust? Do you in this act like a good moral Man? you will confider this Point in a proper Light, and weigh it in the Ballance of your genuine natural Reafon, certainly you cannot defend yourself, even under the Notion of an HONEST INFIDEL.

If

You observe, that there is a Want of Unanimity among Chriftians. We are very forry for it, and we do heartily wish that all who profess Christianity, were united in their Opinions, and regular in their Practice. And this is what we conftantly pray for, that all who profefs and call themselves Chriftians, may be led into the Way of Truth, and hold the Faith in Unity of Spirit, in the Bond of Peace, and in Righteoufness of Life. This we pray for,

and