“----Consider the nature of the posture in which he now lies stretched, --what exquisite torture he endures by it! --’Tis all nature can bear! Good God! See how it keeps his weary soul hanging upon his trembling lips, --willing to take its leave, ----but not suffered to depart! --Behold the unhappy wretch led back to his cell!” ----[Then, thank God, however, quoth _Trim_, they have not killed him.]-- “See him dragged out of it again to meet the flames, and the insults in his last agonies, which this principle, --this principle, that there can be religion without mercy, has prepared for him.” ----[Then, thank God, ----he is dead, quoth _Trim_, --he is out of his pain, --and they have done their worst at him. --O Sirs! --Hold your peace, _Trim_, said my father, going on with the sermon, lest _Trim_ should incense Dr. _Slop_, --we shall never have done at this rate.] “The surest way to try the merit of any disputed notion is, to trace down the consequences such a notion has produced, and compare them with the spirit of Christianity; ----’tis the short and decisive rule which our Saviour hath left us, for these and such like cases, and it is worth a thousand arguments----_By their fruits ye shall know them._ “I will add no farther to the length of this sermon, than by two or three short and independent rules deducible from it. “_First_, Whenever a man talks loudly against religion, always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions, which have got the better of his CREED. A bad life and a good belief are disagreeable and troublesome neighbours, and where they separate, depend upon it, ’tis for no other cause but quietness’ sake. “_Secondly_, When a man, thus represented, tells you in any particular instance, ----That such a thing goes against his conscience, ----always believe he means exactly the same thing, as when he tells you such a thing goes _against_ his stomach; --a present want of appetite being generally the true cause of both. “In a word, --trust that man in nothing, who has not a CONSCIENCE in everything. “And, in your own case, remember this plain distinction, a mistake in which has ruined thousands, --that your conscience is not a law: --No, God and reason made the law, and have placed conscience within you to determine; ----not, like an _Asiatic_ Cadi, according to the ebbs and flows of his own passions, --but like a _British_ judge in this land of liberty and good sense, who makes no new law, but faithfully declares that law which he knows already written.” _FINIS_