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my beft,by being my last and dying thoughts; tho' their being fuch would not by any means render them the beft, nor make them to be of greater, but rather of lefs weight, upon the grounds abovementioned. The reafon why I mention this, is, because persons, when their reflecting powers have been ruffled by a violent fever, and their fears alarmed, perhaps by the infinuations of fuperftitious friends, or by the apprehenfions of death; under thefe circumstances have expreffed themselves very differently from what they had conftantly adhered to, as their real fentiments, when in health, and this has been confidered and represented to be their best, as being their last and dying thoughts, and to be a recantation of their former opinions, when, in truth, such expreffions and declarations were not the produce of a fober folid judgment, grounded on argument and proper evidence, but only on a violent disorder upon the conftitution, which difqualified them from forming a proper judgment in any cafe whatever.; and to prevent any fuch pretences with regard to me, after my death, I have obferved as above.

I AM fenfible my continuance in this world will not be long, and therefore the utmost I can hope for is, that my writings

may

may be of fame fervice, and do fome good to those persons into whofe hands they may fall; to whom I farther and finally addrefs myself, in the words of St. Paul, Galatians vi. 7. Sirs, be not deceived, by the plaufible and fallacious reasonings of men, whatever character they may affume, whatever appearance they may make, or howfoever they may be admired and approved of by others: God is not, nor will be mocked by his creatures, he will not be impofed upon by false appearances, nor be bribed by any external performances, nor be misled by ány outward pomp,fhew or affectation of any kind, but will judge of, and deal with every man according to what he is in himself, whether good or bad, and according as the truth of his cafe fhall be. If he be in reality and truth a good man, his goodness, confidered abftractedly from all foreign confiderations, will fave him, that is, it will render him acceptable to God, whether he be Greek or Roman, whether Scythian or Barbarian, bond or free. If he in reality be a bad man,or one who by his vile behaviour juftly deferves that character, his badnefs will condemn him; that is, it will render him disapprovable to God, and no merit or interceffion that may

be

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

IF it should be afked, what profit then arifes from baptism ? 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 fuffered 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 used in favour of the Quakers, Methodifts, or any other fet of religionists, whom our divines are pleased to stile Enthusiafts; and their labours and fufferings, their fortitude and patience, are offered, as evidences of the divinity of their refpective 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. - As to St. Paul's labours, it may be obferved, that, according to his own account of them, all his fellow apostles must 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

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 circumftances, are two diftinct 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 fons 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

per

the rest of the apoftles is fcarce credible, but that he fhould do more abundantly than they all is furely paft 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.

inftances, Chriftianity 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 reafoning faculties; to all fuch perfons Chriftianity 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 inftances of this kind, viz. of men's being Christians not for the better, but for the worse, is most notorious, from that bigotry and fuperftition 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

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