Another advantage propofed by the abolishing of christianity, is, the clear gain of one day in feven, which is now entirely loft, and confequently the kingdom one seventh lefs confiderable in trade, business, and pleasure; beside the loss to the publick of so many stately ftructures, now in the hands of the clergy, which might be converted into playhouses, market-houses, exchanges, common dormitories, and other publick edifices.

I hope I shall be forgiven a hard word, if I call this a perfect cavil. I readily own there has been an old custom, time out of mind, for people to affemble in the churches every Sunday, and that fhops are ftill frequently shut, in order, as it is conceived, to preserve the memory of that ancient practice; but how this can prove a hindrance to business or pleasure, is hard to imagine. What if the men of pleasure are forced, one day in the week, to game at home instead of the chocolate-houses? are not the taverns and coffee-houses open? can there be a more convenient feafon for taking a dofe of phyfick? are fewer claps got upon Sundays, than other days? is not that the chief day for traders to fum up the accounts of the week, and for lawyers to prepare their briefs? but I would fain know, how it can be pretended, that the churches are mifapplied? where are more appointments and rendezvouses of gallantry? where more care to appear in the foremost box, with greater advantage of drefs? where more meetings for business? where more bargains driven of all forts? and where fo many conveniencies or incitements to fleep?

There is one advantage, greater than any of the foregoing, propofed by the abolishing of christianity; that it will utterly extinguifh parties among us, by removing those factious distinctions of high and low church, of whig and tory, prefbyterian and church of England, which are now so many grievous clogs upon publick proceedings, and are apt to dispose men to prefer the gratifying of themselves, or depreffing of their adverfaries, before the most important intereft of the state.

Is

I confefs, if it were certain, that so great an advantage would redound to the nation by this expedient, I would fubmit, and be filent: but will any man fay, that if the words whoring, drinking, cheating, lying, ftealing, were, by act of parliament, ejected out of the English tongue and dictionaries, we should all awake next morning chafte and temperate, honeft and juft, and lovers of truth. this a fair confequence? or if the phyficians would forbid us to pronounce the words pox, gout, rheumatism and stone, would that expedient ferve, like fo so many talismans, to deftroy the diseases themfelves? are party and faction rooted in men's hearts no deeper than phrases borrowed from religion, or founded upon no firmer principles ? and is our language fo poor, that we cannot find other terms to express them? are envy, pride, avarice, and ambition fuch il nomenclators, that they cannot furnish appellations for their owners? will not Heydukes and mamalukes, mandarins, and patfhaws, or any other words formed at pleasure, ferve to diftinguish those who are in the ministry, from others,

others, who would be in it if they could? what, for inftance, is easier than to vary the form of fpeech, and inftead of the word church, make it a queftion in politicks, whether the monument be in danger? because religion was nearest at hand to furnish a few convenient phrases, is our invention so barren, we can find no other? fuppofe, for argument fake, that the tories favoured Margarita *, the whigs Mrs. Tofts, and the Trimmers Valentini; would not Margaritian, Toftians, and Valentinians be very tolerable marks of diftinction? the Prafini and Veniti, two most virulent factions in Italy, began (if I remember right) by a diftinction of colours in ribbands; and we might contend with as good a grace about the dignity of the blue and the green, which would ferve as properly to divide the court, the parliament, and the kingdom, between them, as any terms of art whatsoever borrowed from religion. And therefore I think there is little force in this objection against christianity, or prospect of so great an advantage, as is propofed in the abolishing of it.

It is again objected, as a very abfurd ridiculous custom, that a fet of men fhould be fuffered, much lefs employed and hired, to bawl one day in feven against the lawfulness of those methods moft in use, towards the pursuit of greatness, riches, and pleasure, which are the conftant practice of all men alive on the other fix. But this objection is, I think, a little unworthy of fo refined an age as ours. Let us argue this matter calmly: I appeal to the breaft

Italian fingers then in vogue.

of any polite free-thinker, whether, in the purfuit of gratifying a predominant paffion, he has not always felt a wonderful incitement, by reflecting it was a thing forbidden: and therefore we fee, in order to cultivate this tafte, the wisdom of the nation has taken fpecial care, that the ladies fhould be furnished with prohibited filks, and the men, with prohibited wine. And indeed it were to be wished, that fome other prohibitions were promoted, in order to improve the pleasures of the town; which, for want of fuch expedients, begin already, as I am told, to flag and grow languid, giving way daily to cruel inroads from the spleen.

It is likewise propofed as a great advantage to the publick, that if we once difcard the fyftem of the gofpel, all religion will of course be banished for ever; and confequently, along with it, thofe grievous prejudices of education, which, under the names of virtue, confcience, honour, justice, and the like, are so apt to disturb the peace of human minds, and the notions whereof are fo hard to be eradicated, by right reafon or free-thinking, fometimes during the whole courfe of our lives.

Here first I observe, how difficult it is to get rid of a phrase, which the world is once grown fond of, though the occafion that first produced it, be entirely taken away. For several years past, if a man had but an ill-favoured nofe, the deep thinkers of the age would, fome way or other, contrive to impute the cause to the prejudice of his education. From this fountain are faid to be derived all our foolish notions of justice, piety, love of our country; all

our

our opinions of God, or a future ftate, heaven, hell, and the like: and there might formerly perhaps have been fome pretence for this charge. But fo effectual care has been fince taken to remove those prejudices, by an entire change in the methods of education, that (with honour I mention it to our polite innovators) the young gentlemen, who are now on the scene, seem to have not the least tincture left of those infufions, or string of those weeds; and, by confequence, the reafon for abolishing nominal christianity upon that pretext, is wholly ceased.

For the reft, it may perhaps admit a controverfy, whether the banishing of all notions of religion whatsoever, would be convenient for the vulgar. Not that I am in the least of opinion with those, who hold religion to have been the invention of politicians, to keep the lower part of the world in awe, by the fear of invisible powers; unless mankind were then very different to what it is now: for I look upon the mass or body of our people here in England, to be as free-thinkers, that is to fay, as staunch unbelievers, as any of the highest rank. But I conceive some scattered notions about a superior power, to be of fingular ufe for the common people, as furnishing excellent materials to keep children quiet when they grow peevish, and providing topicks of amusement, in a tedious winternight.

Lastly, it is propofed, as a fingular advantage, that the abolishing of christianity will very much contribute to the uniting of proteftants, by enlarg