HOW TO DO GOOD TO MANSE, 575 tians to hinder tnem from knowledge,) were it not better move the government, therefore, to change that law, so far as to allow these covetous masters their service for a certain time, using them as free servants ? 3. And whereas they are allowed only the Lord's day for their own labor, and some honest Christians would willingly allow them sonie other time instead of it, that they might spend the Lord's day in learning to know Christ, and worship God, but they dare not do it, lest their wicked neighbors rise against them, for giving their slaves such an example; might not the governors be procured to force the whole plantation to it by a law, even to allow their infidel servants so much time on another day, and cause some to congregate them for instruction on the Lord's days? Why should those men be called. Christians, or have any Christian reputation, or privilege themselves, who think both Christianityand souls to be no more worth than to be thus basely sold for the gain of men's servilest labors? And what, though the poor infidels desire not their own conversion ; their need is the greater, and not the less. VI. I conclude with this moving inference: The great oppo- sition that is made against doing good by the devil and his whole army through all the world, and their lamentable success, Both call aloud to all true Christians to overdo them. O what a kingdom of malignants bath Satan, doing mischief to men's souls and bodies through the earth ! hating the godly; oppressing the just;, corrupt- ing doctrine ; introducing lies ; turning Christ's laborers out of his vineyard; forbidding them to preaçh in his name the saving wórd of life ; hiding or despising the laws of Christ, and setting up their own wills and devices in their stead ; making dividing, distracting engines, on pretense of order, government andunity; murdering men's bodies, and ruining their estates, and slandering their names, on pretense of love to the church and souls; encour- aging profaneness, blasphemy, perjury, whoredom, and scorning conscience, and fear of sinning. What diligence doth Satan use through the very Christian nations, to turn Christ's ordinances of magistracy and ministry against himself, and to make his own offi- cers the most mischievous enemies to his truth and kingdom, and saving work; to tread down his family and spiritualworship, as if it were by his own authority and commission ! To preach down truth, and conscience, and real godliness, as in Christ's own name, and fight against him with his own word, and to teach the people to hate his servants, as if this pleased the God of love. And, alas ! how dismal is their success ! In the East, the church is hereby destroyed by the barbarous Mahometans: the remnants by their prelates continued in sects, in great ignorance, and dead formality, reproaching and anathematizing one another, and little
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