It is the promise of Christ,
to make us all one flock: but how and when this union
shall be, is as obscure to me as the last day. Of those
four members of religion we hold a slender propor-
tion.<38> There are, I confess, some new additions; yet
small to those which accrue to our adversaries; and
those only drawn from the revolt of pagans; men but
of negative impieties; and such as deny Christ, but
because they never heard of him. But the religion of
the Jew is expressly against the Christian, and the
Mohammedan against both; for the Turk, in the bulk
he now stands, is beyond all hope of conversion: if he
fall asunder, there may be conceived hopes; but not
without strong improbabilities. The Jew is obstinate in
all fortunes; the persecution of fifteen hundred years
hath but confirmed them in their error. They have
already endured whatsoever may be inflicted: and have
suffered, in a bad cause, even to the condemnation of
their enemies. Persecution is a bad and indirect way
to plant religion.
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