in being a God and his providence, with all the necessary consequences
which curious and inquisitive men will be apt to draw from such
premises, we do not strike at the root of the evil, though we should
ever so effectually annihilate the present scheme of the Gospel: For, of
what use is freedom of thought, if it will not produce freedom of
action, which is the sole end, how remote soever in appearance, of all
objections against Christianity? And therefore, the freethinkers
consider it as a sort of edifice, wherein all the parts have such a
mutual dependence on each other, that if you happen to pull out one
single nail, the whole fabric must fall to the ground. This was happily
expressed by him who had heard of a text brought for proof of the
Trinity, which in an ancient manuscript was differently read; he
thereupon immediately took the hint, and by a sudden deduction of a long
_sorites_, most logically concluded; "Why, if it be as you say, I may
safely whore and drink on, and defy the parson." From which, and many
the like instances easy to be produced, I think nothing can be more
manifest, than that the quarrel is not against any particular points of
hard digestion in the Christian system, but against religion in general;
which, by laying restraints on human nature, is supposed the great enemy
to the freedom of thought and action.

Upon the whole, if it shall still be thought for the benefit of Church
and State, that Christianity be abolished; I conceive however, it may be
more convenient to defer the execution to a time of peace, and not
venture in this conjuncture to disoblige our allies, who, as it falls
out, are all Christians, and many of them, by the prejudices of their
education, so bigoted, as to place a sort of pride in the appellation.
If upon being rejected by them, we are to trust an alliance with the
Turk, we shall find ourselves much deceived: For, as he is too remote,
and generally engaged in war with the Persian emperor, so his people