the _Deity_, than to be all of one Colour or Stature. To stretch or
narrow any Man's Conscience to the Standard of our own, is no less a
Piece of Cruelty than that of _Procrustes_ the Tyrant of _Attica_, who
used to fit his Guests to the Length of his own Iron Bedsted, either by
cutting them shorter, or racking them longer. What just Reason can I
have to be angry with, to endeavour to curb the natural Liberty, or to
retrench the Civil Advantages of an honest Man (who follows the golden
Rule, of _doing to others, as he wou'd have others do to him_, and is
willing and able to serve the Publick) only because he thinks his Way to
Heaven surer or shorter than mine? No body can tell which of us is
mistaken, till the Day of Judgment, or whether any of us be so (for
there may be different Ways to the same End, and I am not for
circumscribing God Almighty's Mercy:) This I am sure of, one shall meet
with the same Positiveness in Opinion, in some of the Priests of all
these Sects; The same Want of Charity, engrossing Heaven by way of
_Monopoly_ to their own _Corporation_, and managing it by a joint Stock,
exclusive of all others (as pernicious in Divinity as in trade, and
perhaps more) The same Pretences to _Miracles, Martyrs, Inspirations,
Merits, Mortifications, Revelations, Austerity, Antiquity_, &c. (as all
Persons conversant with History, or that travel, know to be true) and
this _cui bono_? I think it the Honour of the Reformed Part of the
Christian Profession, and the Church of _England_ in particular, that it
pretends to fewer of these unusual and extraordinary Things, than any
other Religion we know of in the World; being convinced, that these are
not the distinguishing Marks of the Truth of any Religion (I mean, the
assuming obstinate Pretences to them are not;) and it were not amiss, if
we farther enlarg'd our Charity, when we can do it with Safety, or
Advantage to the State.

Let us but consider, how hard and how impolitick it is to condemn all