be made for him by another can poffibly fave him, whether he be Jew, Chriftian, or Mahometan; for look, what foever a man soweth, that shall be also reap.

If it should be asked, what profit then arifes from baptifm? or what advantages have chriftians more then other men? or what need was there of the apoftles doing and fuffering what they did in the promulgation

of

* The labours and fufferings of the apostles and preachers of the gospel, is a fine topic for divines to harangue upon, as they raise an argument from it in favour of the truth and divinity of the apoftles miniftry; for when the preacher has exaggerated these as much as he can, or as the legend fets forth, he then urges that no men could have done and fuffered fuch things except God was with them, that no men could have went through and suffered with fo much fortitude and patience what thofe men did, had they not truth on their fide, and had not the power and fpirit of God been mightily prefent with them to enable them fo to do: But the power and spirit of God is not prefent with delufion or impofition, therefore the apoftles miniftry was divine. But when this argument is ufed in favour of the Quakers, Methodists, or any other fet of religionifts, whom our divines are pleafed to ftile Enthufiafts; and their labours and fufferings, their fortitude and patience, are offered, as evidences of the divinity of their respective miniftries, then it lofes all it's weight, and finks into emptiness and vanity; fueh is mens partiality in argument in favour of the religious fyftem they imbibe, and the religious faction they take part with. to St. Paul's labours, it may be obferved, that, according to his own account of them, all his fellow apostles muft have been idle drones, who took the name, but did not the works of Apoftles ;this, I think, fhould be confidered as a bravado; for that Paul fhould do more than all

As

the

of the gospel, if men may be as good in this world, and as happy in the next, without christianity as with it? The answer is, that what men may be, or are capable of being, and what they will be, or would be, under other circumstances, are two distinct and different cafes. That men may be, or are capable of being, as good in this World, and as happy in the next, without Chriftianity as with it, is to me paft all doubt; because their capacities for being good men,and their obligations to be fuch, are the fame, whether they have heard of and received chriftianity, or not. Yet, notwithstanding, if there have been any men who have been made really better, as to the moral rectitude of their minds and lives, by their being Chriftians, than otherwife they would have been to all fuch perfons Chriftianity has thus far been a real benefit, and the labours and fufferings of it's promulgers have not been in vain, nor loft, with regard to them.

;

But if, in any

in

the rest of the apoftles is fcarce credible, but that he fhould do more abundantly than they all is furely past all belief. Besides, he seems to be a little upon the ftretch in his account of his fufferings-alfo night and day (faid he) I have been in the deep; what, and not drown'd? Here it will be faid, he was fuftained by the power of God; if fo, then he was in no danger, and his peril comes to nought, for there can be no peril where the power of God is prefent to fave.

instances, Christianity has had a contrary effect, and instead of making men better, as to the moral rectitude of their minds and lives, it has really made them worse than otherwise they would have been, had they been left to follow nature,and the fober dictates of their reasoning faculties; to all fuch perfons Christianity has not been for the better, but for the worse, by being injurious to them, and to the world, thro' them; and the labours and fufferings of it's promulgers have not only been in vain, and loft, to all fuch men, but have rather been a curfe than a blessing upon them. And that there have been, in fact,too too many instances of this kind, viz. of men's being Chriftians not for the better, but for the worse, is most notorious, from that bigotry and superstition which has fo generally, and almost univerfally, prevailed in the Chriftian world in confequence of which, men have been brought under many unneceffary restraints, burthens and evils, that otherwise they might have been free from, of which the Roman and Greek Churches are most notorious inftances, befides what has taken place in Proteftant and other Chriftian Churches in a lower degree; and likewife from that flander

;

flander and defamation, that violence and perfecution, that war and bloodshed, which have taken place on the score of Christianity, and have been introduced thereby, with refpect to which, furely, had those Christians not been Chriftians, but been left to follow the guidance of their intellectual and reafoning faculties, without any unnatural biass upon their minds, they would not have commenced fuch monsters in nature as they have done. Indeed, this kind of evil feems to have attended all traditionary religions, in fome degree, each fect being apt to pay a partial regard to thofe of their own religious party, and fometimes to have an evil difpofition towards others; tho', perhaps, this has appeared much more notorious and common among Chriftians, than among any other religious fect: Among Christians, men's attachment to their religious party, and their zeal for it's intereft and propaga tion, have not only weakened, but in many inftances, have difpofed them to put off humanity itself; to discharge themselves of all the obligations of nature; and to pursue, even unto death, by methods moft barba-. rous and cruel, those who differ from them in matters of religion, tho' they have neither

done,

done, nor wished them ill. This, furely, is the groffeft corruption human nature is capable of finking into, with refpect to which the fin of our first parents, in eating the forbidden fruit, muft needs have been a meer trifle. However, tho' other traditionary religions have not been fo productive of this kind of fruit as the Chriftian, and tho' the Church of Rome has much more abounded in thofe deeds of darkness than any other Chriftian Church; yet, perhaps, there has been no fect, founded on traditionary religion, that has been quite clear of this kind of partiality, but hath had a particular regard to the houshold of faith, only because they were the houshold of faith, exclufive of all other confiderations, and exclufive of others who, upon other accounts, were much more the proper objects of fuch regard. St. Paul, indeed, exhorted the Galatians, (chap. vi. verse 10.) to do good unto all men, especially unto them that are of the houshold of faith; by which if he meant, that those who adhered to the fame confeffion of faith with ourselves, should be preferred to others in acts of benevolence, when fuch fellow-believers are as much the proper objects of kindness as thofe others they are preferred to, and when the benevolent