Religious discussion

“After dinner the religious conversation was revived, when, finding my spirits pretty well recruited, and that I could not well evade the argument as before, I disputed with them a considerable time, and at last told them it was in vain for us to talk anymore on the subject; for as I held the Christian religion only by the sacred writings of the Old and New Testament, all their arguments drawn from the authority of the church, the writings of the fathers, and the opinions of saints and wise men, went me for nothing: and added, that if the religion of the New Testament was the same with that now professed by the Romish and protestant churches, it made that book to be false and incoherent; because the New Testament plainly declares, that no man in any place can embrace or profess Christianity, without suffering worldly loss in some way or other, solely on account of his religion. But, on the contrary, in Spain and many other countries, a man cannot be a member of society unless he professwhat they call Christianity; which is so far from being a loss to those who profess it that it is the first step to honour and riches.”

George Glas