_Religions_ now profess'd in the World, but diffuses it self among all.
We have known _Jews_, _Turks_, nay, some Papists, (which I own to be a
great Rarity) very great Lovers of the Constitution and Liberty; and
were there rational Grounds to expect, that any Numbers of them cou'd be
so, I shou'd be against using Severities and Distinctions upon Account
of Religion. For a Papist is not dangerous, nor ought to be ill us'd by
any body, because he prays to Saints, believes Purgatory, or the real
Presence in the Eucharist, and pays Divine Worship to an Image or
Picture (which are the common Topicks of our Writers of Controversy
against the Papists;) but because Popery sets up a _foreign Jurisdiction
paramount to our Laws_. So that a _real Papist_ can neither be a true
_Governor_ of a _Protestant_ Country, nor a true _Subject_, and besides,
is the most _Priest-Ridden_ Creature in the World: and (when uppermost)
can bear with no body that differs from him in Opinion; little
considering, that whosoever is against _Liberty of Mind_, is, in effect,
against _Liberty of Body_ too. And therefore all Penal _Acts_ of
_Parliament_ for Opinions _purely_ religious, which have no Influence on
the _State_, are so many Encroachments upon _Liberty_, whilst those
which restrain Vice and Injustice are against _Licentiousness_.

I profess my self to have always been a Member of the _Church_ of
_England_ and am for supporting it in all its _Honours_, _Privileges_
and _Revenues_: but as a Christian and a _Whig_, I must have Charity for
those that differ from me in _religious_ Opinions, whether _Pagans_,
_Turks_, _Jews_, _Papists_, _Quakers_, _Socinians_, _Presbyterians_, or
others. I look upon _Bigotry_ to have always been the very Bane of human
Society, and the Offspring of Interest and Ignorance, which has
occasion'd most of the great Mischiefs that have afflicted Mankind. We
ought no more to expect to be all of one Opinion, as to the Worship of
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