the Scriptures:--

"Had the heathen distinguished themselves by creeds made out of spite
to one another, and mutually persecuted each other about the worship of
their gods, they would soon have made the number of their votaries as
few as the gods they worshipped; but we don't find (except in Egypt,
that mother-land of superstition) that they ever quarrelled about their
gods; though their gods sometimes quarrelled, and fought about their
votaries. By the universal liberty that was allowed by the ancients,
'Matters (as a noble author observes) were so balanced, that reason had
fair play; learning and science flourished; wonderful was the harmony
and temper which arose from these contrarieties. Thus superstition and
enthusiasm were mildly treated; and being let alone, they never raged
to that degree as to occasion bloodshed, wars, persecutions, and
devastations; but a new sort of policy has made us leap the bounds of
natural humanity, and out of a supernatural charity, has taught us the
way of plaguing one another most devoutly. It has raised an antipathy,
that no temporal interest could ever do, and entailed on us a mutual
hatred to all eternity. And savage zeal, with meek and pious semblance,
works dreadful massacre; and for heaven's sake (horrid pretence) makes
desolate the earth.' And further, Shaftesbury observes, 'The Jupiter
of Strangers, was, among the ancients, one of the solemn characters
of divinity, the peculiar attribute of the supreme deity; benign to
mankind, and recommending universal love, mutual kindness, and benignity
between the remotest and most unlike of the human race. Such was the
ancient heathen charity and pious duty towards the whole of mankind;
both those of different nations and different worship. But, good God!
how different a character do bigots give us of the Deity, making him an
unjust, cruel, and inconsistent Being; requiring all men to judge for
themselves, and act according to their consciences; and yet authorizing
some among them to judge for others, and to punish them for not acting
according to the consciences of those judges, though ever so much
against their own. These bigots thought they were authorized to punish
all those that differ with them in their religious worship, as God's
enemies; but had they considered that God alone could discern men's
hearts, and alone discover whether any, by conscientiously offering him
a wrong worship, could become his enemies; and that infinite wisd